In order to inherit a large fortune, Christopher "Kit" Ellingsworth must marry within a month and chooses Tamsyn Pearce, who runs a secret smuggling operation, only to discover after their wedding that she now controls the money.
When Captain Tristan Hardy's hunt for a notorious smuggler leads him to a London boarding house, he sets out to seduce its aristocratic proprietress, Delilah Swanpoole, Countess of Derring, to get the answers he seeks.