George, Lord Vandymen returned home after Waterloo to a ruined estate and a dead family. All attempts to return at least part of his inheritance leave him in even greater debt, and he is ready to take his own life when a woman bursts into his room with an unusual proposal. Mrs. Maria Celestine, the young widow of a wealthy foreign merchant, is willing to pay a small fortune if he will pretend to be her fiancé for six weeks. Van cannot refuse, but he is wary of such luck, suspecting that Maria has her own secret motives. And he does not at all expect that this adventure will bring him back to life, give him love, or make him fight for the woman who bought him.