Michael Keynes, mercenary adventurer, returns to England to destroy his evil brother, the “Devil Duke of Tallant. But someone else gets there first. Suspicion falls on Michael, the duke’s own daughter, and a soft-voiced young woman with a heart of steel. Now he must find a way to exonerate both of them, even if it means confessing to a crime he didn’t commit (but wanted to!).

Miranda Holcombe has reasons of her own to confess to the murder, but Michael (now the Duke of Tallant) compels her to marry him, which will bring her under his protection. Then the real murderer and an enemy from Michael’s past resurface, and survival itself becomes the only game in town.