Lady Emmaline Fitzhugh, a hopeless romantic, is tired of sitting with the wallflowers, waiting for her betrothed to come to his senses and marry her. When Emmaline reads one too many reports of his scandalous liaisons in the gossip rags, she takes matters into her own hands.

Tired of dealing with legalities relating to his father's unexpected death, new baronet Sir Philip Selbourne is ready to leave London and head home for Christmas. But having spent a boyhood rescuing strays, he's unable to resist helping a desperate young woman with speaking brown eyes and a kitten in her pocket.

She thought Harry loved her and she was prepared to wait for him, but Lyla is devastated when he becomes engaged to someone else. He writes to explain his reasons and she wants to forgive him, but all she can think of is escape. She persuades her father to send her to Ireland to help in purchasing horses for the family business. In spite of meeting the engaging Finn and all sorts of other new people, from camp followers to the Colonel's lady, Lyla still falls asleep with Harry's folded and re-folded letter against her breast.

When Lady Henley Killigrew's father dies and his title of earl passes to a not-so-friendly cousin who wants her and her two younger sisters out of their elegant London townhouse, she takes them to Moonstone Cottage, a lovely manor house they inherited from a maiden aunt in the Cornwall seaside village of Moonstone Landing. But their funds are limited, and the new earl is a stingy guardian who will not loosen the purse strings to allow her to properly maintain herself and her sisters in their new home. The only way to save them all is for her to marry.

Nowadays the Marquess of Hastings would probably be described as having Asperger's. He's good-looking and rich, but his lack of social skills make it hard for him to find a much-needed wife. He scandalizes the ton by putting an advertisement in the newspaper describing the type of spouse he requires and the marriage of convenience he envisages. Amazingly, he finds a suitable candidate. Elisabeth is an impoverished gentlewoman with literary aspirations. But can this oddly-assorted pair possibly coexist, let alone find happiness?