Charlotte Drummond knows she has a duty to obey her father. Girls, especially well-bred upper-class ones, are expected to be submissive to the men in their lives.

But Charlotte's father is a cruel man, viciously beating her and her brothers for the slightest reason. He even wants to marry her off, at just sixteen years old, to a man she does not love. Lion-hearted Charlotte wants to defy him - but to protect her brothers from his fury she agrees to become the wife of Brooke Armstrong.

Charlotte does not understand that Brooke adores her, and that he would never have forced his enchanting new wife to agree to the match. As they begin their ill-starred marriage, Brooke welcomes her brothers into his home and sets out to make her love him. And when Charlotte turns her back on her social duties to turn the Dower House into a home for Wakefield's fallen women his patience is tested to the limit.

Only when tragedy strikes will she will be able to admit that she loved him from the moment they met. But will it be too late?