This is a romance set in Regency England. It is in regrettable circumstances that beautiful young heiress Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine first encounter Julian St. John Audley. The man, they both agree, is an insufferably arrogant dandy. But unfortunately for them, he is also the Fifth Earl of Worth, a friend of the Regent and, quite by chance, their legal guardian. A number of surprising events occur when they meet.