Lady Georgiana Elizabeth Cambury has been a "wild romping girl" all her life: dressing in tros, riding astride, and doing just fine, thank you very much. Her father's exceedingly generous bequest — and her mother's liberal views of the world — have ensured that Georgie will never be a slave to the barbarous institutions of marriage or motherhood. Or so she thinks.

When she returns from five years in North Africa to boring Derbyshire for a brief, obligatory family visit, she finds herself in the midst of a legal snarl involving Mr. James Rushford and Lord Trevor Mayson — neighbors, lovers, and her two closest friends. Mayson's father has declared that he must marry or forfeit his vast inheritance, so Georgie blithely offers to walk down the aisle, in name only. Problem solved.

But try as she might, Georgie cannot ignore the ion that quickly blazes between all three of them. When her marriage of convenience turns into something much deeper, Georgie must decide if she is willing to give up the independence she has fought so hard to achieve — or if love is worth the ultimate surrender.