With the comforts of wealth to replace the absence of their husbands, the Merry Widows need not trouble themselves again with marriage. But that doesn’t mean these five friends must deprive themselves of their most basic need — physical pleasure. So they each agree to take a lover...or two.

Beatrice, Lady Somerfield, is too busy chaperoning her headstrong niece and overseeing her own young daughters to find time to take a lover — until one night at a ball when a masked stranger makes her realize the delights she’s been missing. When she learns his identity, however, an affair seems impossible. He is Gabriel, the Marquess of Thayne, just returned from India, the catch of the Season — and the one man half the debutantes of London (including Beatrice’s niece!) want for a husband.

But Thayne is thoroughly captivated by Beatrice, and their attraction leads to several mutually satisfying encounters. As he searches for a bride among the Season’s young ladies, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the beautiful, sensual, more sophisticated Lady Somerfield, and suspects his mistress might make the perfect wife. But will Beatrice’s deepening feelings for Thayne be enough to overcome her vow never to marry again, and the scandal once their relationship is revealed?