Miss Clemency Hastings is intelligent and rather outspoken - qualities unlikely to endear her to the eligible young men her social-climbing mother hopes to attract. But Clemency has recently inherited 100,000 pounds, more than enough money to catch the attention of Lysander, the unmarried Marquess of Storrington, who is struggling under the debts left by the untimely death of his brother. Unwilling to be forced by her mother into marrying Lysander, whom the gossip vine holds to be a wastrel, Clemency flees to her Cousin Anne's home in the countryside. She establishes herself in her new surroundings by accepting a job as governess at a nearby estate. Clemency soon discovers, however, that her hiding place is only a stone's throw away from Gandover Court - home of the Storringtons.