Adeline Ellsworth is tired of reporting on society in 1896 San Francisco. Instead of stories of fashion she wants to write about the prostitution and human trafficking. When her cousin, a police inspector, is murdered her investigation leads her to prominent developer, Charles Vonn. As she gets close to the truth she is knocked out and wakes up tied to Alec McCairn, Lord Peyton, a Scottish lord in town setting up his company's offices. She doesn't want him involved, no matter how attractive and charming he is. Already widowed, she doesn't want to chance loving a man and losing him. She guards her heart as fiercely as she guards her story until Vonn kidnaps her younger brother and her research is the ransom.
Alec McCairn wasn't looking for a romantic entanglement, especially with an independent, opinionated reporter. But after being knocked out and tied up to her, he suspects she is in over her head and too proud to ask for help. Determined to uncover her secret and protect her, he finds the biggest mystery he must solve is how to make her his.