Eternity is a bloody bore for Valerian Caine. A swashbuckling, amoral 18th Century rake, he was cut down in a duel at age 27 by a ricocheting bullet fired by a cuckolded husband. Now stewing resentfully in a bureaucratic afterlife, he leaps at the chance to regain his human form and return to his previous existence.

But there's a catch. He'll be transported to the England of a hundred years later, where he'll have one month to end the family feud launched by that fatal duel and ensure the happiness of the Caine and Sevaric descendants. If he succeeds, he'll be transported back to his former life and the bullet will miss him. But standing between him and his goal is the obstinately unhappy and ascerbic Gwen Sevaric—and his surprising desire to be forever the one who makes her smile.