A scandalous marriage to an impotent ,elderly roue- undertaken to pay her brother Malcolm's gambling debts- has left Isabel de Riche cynical, her reputation ruined. When she returns in 1720, a widow, from the court of Versailles to her father's castle in Scotland, she finds that her name is a byword there as it has been in France. James MacLeod believes the stories and treats Isabel as he thinks she deserves, yet finds himself falling in love with her: slowly, Isabel's frozen heart melts again. Then James learns that she is meeting another man in secret, as if she were the wanton he first thought her...