Boston heiress Lydia Hamilton overhears her fiancé’s scheme to wrest control of the family business by wedding her. Refusing to be any man’s pawn, she runs away to England. A lone woman would stand out, but masquerading as a young man named Leonard, she can have the adventure of her life and support herself with gambling.

Victor Bartlett, the Earl of Wedmont, has sworn off marriage, but he didn’t think he’s sworn off women. When he rescues a brash American gambler, who has won too much and too often, Victor finds his feelings for the youth unsettling. To scare the runaway back to America, he challenges Leonard to a duel with notoriously inaccurate and cursed pistols.

But the pistols have away of changing everything, and Leonard is wounded. Victor didn’t mean to shoot the boy at all, but when he discovers Leonard is a girl what can he do, but take her home to heal? But who will heal whom . . .