A period tale of nineteen year old Antoinette Aston who has lived all herlife in Harrogate with her aunt and uncle but when they both fall ill anddie, she is horrified to find out that she is not related to them at all, asthey found her, abandoned by her mother, on their doorstep when a baby.Forced to leave the only home she has ever known, she is taken into the homeof Eleanor Le Strange, whom she discovers, too late, to be a notoriouscourtesan. Antoinette realises that her secret pasion for the Duke ofLyveden is now doomed as he will believe her to be a woman of low morals butto her surprise the Duke rescues her from the house of sin. When the Dukeasks her to marry him she refuses as she has found out that her mother wasmad and she fears that this will be passed on to her children.