One mistake sends Davina McLaren into the arms of matrimony and into the clutches the Earl of Lorne.  His temperament and desire for solitude has earned him the title of The Devil of Ambrose.  Marshall isn't that fond of matrimony but he needs an heir—someone to take the stain off his family's name.  A stain he put there when men under his command were killed after being taken captive in China.  Although the crown did not place any blame on him, Marshall carries the guilt and hears the screams of his men as they were tortured and killed.

Davina knows marriage is the only way to save her reputation after her curiosity about sexual intimacy is satisfied outside the bonds of matrimony.  When her aunt tells her a marriage has been arranged for her, she plans to make the best of it.  Something that would be much easier to do if her new husband would take her to bed.   Marshall's aloofness causes her to doubt her own self-worth as a woman.  Never one to just sit back and wait, she tries to burrow into what causes her husband to leave her bed after they are intimate and why his gaze always holds sorrow.

To add to Davina's problems, Marshall's attacks of seeing ghosts are becoming more frequent.  He pushes her away both physically and mentally.  Hurt beyond imagination, she flees to Edinburgh and his uncle has him committed.  Now, she must free the man she has come to love not only from his past but also from an asylum.