Clarissa de Vrais, an heiress in flight from intolerable insult at the hands of her stepbrother and his dissolute friends, takes service as an abigail with the delightfully eccentric Lady Alderley and her dashing nephew, Robin. Lady Alderley, in financial difficulties as always, has the brilliant notion of presenting her beautiful new maidservant to the Ton as a lady of quality. Then, if she can but snare a wealthy husband, they may all profit. But this lighthearted interlude comes to an end when a chance acquaintance brings her into contact with her persecutors, and she must turn to Robin to shield her from a murderer.