Lady Isabella Winton has waited four years to marry her fiance, but each year Lord Alexander Fitzroy, Earl of Standford, a serving officer and a reformed rake, finds an excuse to delay the nuptials. This time, with the marriage set for the next month, he tells her he received an urgent message from his Colonel. He is needed in Belgium almost immediately. He warns her it may be dangerous for her to accompany him. Isabella realizes he is bluffing, things would not change so suddenly. Brussels is the centre of a social whirl with elaborate dinners and extravagant balls. Fearing Alex may have returned to his rakish ways and already installed a mistress, she insists on travelling with him. Caught in a whirl of arrangements for the wedding, Isabella is unaware that Lord Ladness, heir to a dukedom, is obsessed with her and will go to any lengths to possess her."