Anastasia Merkusheva decides not to obey the terms of her grandfather's will and runs away from home a few hours before her wedding in church with Count Sergei Ratmanov. The Count is forced to marry her in order to receive a large inheritance. At the inn, Nastya meets a stranger who introduces himself as the famous poet Thaddeus Bagryantsev. Is it only the desire to protect Nastya from future misfortunes that makes the poet go after her, or maybe a completely different feeling, completely unexpected for him? And is he really the person he claims to be?.. Previously, the novel “Bride by Inheritance” was published under the title “Desperate Happiness.”