Colin, Earl of Shefford, visits a building he has won in a wager, having determined its address to be an excellent location for a new club. Discovering not only a fully functioning orphanage but a beautiful headmistress who refuses his offer of an alternative establishment, he suffers a pique of temper. Irritated by her immunity to his charms, he foolishly succumbs to his intense attraction and brashly offers her a choice. Either she must accept him in a marriage of convenience or provide proof that the orphanage has value to him.

Impoverished and needing to restore her fortunes, Miss Honoria Mason despises the members of the ton for their extravagance and blames them for her family's loss of home and fortune. However, Nora's life takes an eventful turn when the handsome Lord Shefford becomes the orphanage's landlord and presents her with an ultimatum. Either she proves the orphanage's worth to him in two weeks or becomes his convenient bride in order that he may produce an heir. She refuses to lose the orphanage she has worked so hard to preserve and so accepts his offer to marry.

Sparks fly as proximity forces them together, the better to know each other. How can romance bloom when resentment has withered their hearts?