Juliana of Stanmore is strong-willed, fiercely loyal, and a widow. She intends to choose her next husband, but it's a feat easier said than done when neighbor Rhys Monteux clashes with her brother over the land that is her dowry. Juliana's brother hates Rhys, would scheme with the devil to see him thwarted or better yet, dead, and he counts on Juliana's fidelity to see his scheme to fruition. When a feud erupts between their two houses, Juliana's hand in marriage is at its center, her brother's hartred pitting her sense of family loyatly against her own heart.