April 1831. Lord Julian is a widower whose mother wants him to marry her best friend's daughter, Miss Sophie Wilkie, whom he last saw as a silent and skinny twelve-year-old. However, his mother is nothing if not persuasive, and Julian reluctantly accompanies her to London to meet the young lady.

Lord Devlin Monroe, Julian's nephew, is enjoying an extraordinarily pleasant bachelor life until Miss Sophie Wilkie and her aunt, Miss Roxanne Radcliffe, appear in London society, and he suddenly finds himself wondering how he could have enjoyed midnight alone.

Julian and Devlin must discover what really happened three years earlier when Julian's first wife was found dead. If they don't find out the truth, their lives could be ruined. And there is another, even more perfidious, danger that lurks in the shadows, waiting.