When Nicholas Bragg, Earl of Dragmore, accepts his late wife's 17-year-old niece as his ward, he plans to marry her off immediately. But the petite, lovely actress Jane Barclay proves to be illegitimate- and therefore undesirable in the eyes of proper society.

Infatuated with her handsome, brooding guardian, Jane seals her fate in a night of glorious passion. But when Nicholas declares he intends to marry her out of duty rather than love, the prospect of a loveless marriage sends her fleeing back to the theater, relentlessly pursued by the lover who has possessed her soul....