Guinevere Hollister, cousin to the Marquis of Heathgate, has fashioned a life as a poor relation, raising her daughter Rose in rural obscurity and focusing her considerable passion and intellect on stewarding the estate they live on. Douglas Allen, Viscount Amery, is sent to Gwen by their mutual relations for lessons in husbandry of the land. As Douglas and Gwen find common ground, and then mutual pleasure, Gwen's past rises up in the person of the powerful Duke of Moreland, who is bent on wresting control of Rose from her mother, even if it means Gwen must marry the Moreland heir.