After years spent captive in a French fortress, Captain Quentin Scovell returns to London, only to find himself the new Marquess of Glencraig following his brother's death. Guarded and blunt, Quentin needs help adapting to society and wooing a marriage-worthy woman - preferably one who won't recoil from his scars. Lady Chloe Leighton, his best friend's enigmatic sister, entices him, but is surely too elegant and refined to be suitable.

Practical and ever fair, Chloe is determined to repay Quentin after he settled her mother's gambling loss a year ago, and so a deal is struck: she will give Quentin courtship lessons so he can find a wife. The marquess is reserved and commanding, with a history he's unwilling to share. But then, Chloe has secrets, too. As each begins to see beneath the surface and a dangerous person from their past threatens their future, their arrangement becomes more complicated - and heated - than ever...