When the Earl of Eastmere vanishes, Lady Rosalind Carlisle refuses to believe her father abandoned his family.
She turns to Lord William Sinclair, the last man to see the earl alive, even as whispers already tie his household to the disappearance.
With his mother pressing him to marry, William proposes a false courtship that can quiet her demands while he and Rosalind pursue the truth.
Forged letters and coded clues carry them from London to Wales, toward a secret hidden inside his family, and the arrangement grows harder to treat as mere pretense.
Suspicion then falls on the person William loves most, leaving him to weigh family loyalty against the woman who has claimed his heart.