An indentured servant from Virginia, Juliet White came to Scotland to find her niece, the child her sister had borne before she died. The search took her to the castle of Lachlan MacKenzie, duke of Ross, where she was accepted as governess to the four illegitimate daughters of the lusty aristocrat, all sired in one lascivious season at the Scottish Court. Seeking to know for certain if her sister's child is among her small charges, Juliet probed into the notorious duke's family history... while the girls, each in her own fashion, begin to find a place in Juliet's heart.

But Lachlan was not a man to let a lovely young woman keep her innocence under his roof. When the renowned rake stirred her girlish dreams into a woman's desires, Juliet was stunned to find her resolve succumbing to the virile charm of the man she suspected of seducing her sister. Powerless to resist the wild rush of yearning, Juliet plunged into a river of passion whose waters might be too turbulent to carry her to a safe shore...