Hugh David Maurice Charles Asbury, Earl of Stanhope and peer of one of the oldest families in England, has made a mistake. While in disguise, he has a night of passion with what he believed to be a 17-year-old tavern girl. Instead, Eileen Fitzgerald is the granddaughter of the Dowager Duchess of Denham, and now to preserve her honor, Stanhope must take the hand of a girl ten years his junior in marriage.

To prevent scandal, he must be seen with her on the social circuit of London at dances and balls. Stanhope resigns himself to his fate, but what he did not expect…the feelings he begins to develop for the young Eileen.