The deceased earl's heirs were to include his hated grandson Bain Beresford and Bain's two cousins, Gerald and Geoffrey. But according to the will, everything was to go to the old Earl’s ward, Mary Wilding, with the condition that she would get married within a year and that Bain would approve her candidacy. The touch of this mysterious young count awakened a burning and forbidden desire in the girl. But her hopes for creating a happy family are crumbling - she has doubts about the integrity of Bane, who, with his proposal of marriage, obviously out of convenience, is as far from her as the ghosts who supposedly live in the old Beresford house and whose terrible stories never tire of frightening her. Mary's cousins. And after a series of mysterious assassination attempts, she even suspected that he wanted to kill her... But who is the reason for all her misadventures?