When The Bell Tolls is a historical story of passionate love and friendship between three people whose lives are irreversibly intertwined when Emma Hosking unknowingly shapes the life of Mr. William Hosking, Lord Roseharte and her own through one look and one smile at a stranger. A look that binds them to each other forever. William Hosking considers Lord Roseharte his friend. He accepts his gifts as a token of his abiding friendship. He didn't know that in return he was offering Emma to him. Lord Roseharte responds to Emma Hosking's smile and watches her walk with a sharp step and beguiling poise down the road as the bell tolls and he knows that he should walk away when the bell stops but he can't. In one instant, he is in love. That look and smile changes everything. He cannot fire William Hosking as he had intended. He needs him to get close to her. All he wants is to make her happy. Whatever it takes, he wants the woman he loves to be happy even if it means exploiting one man's friendship and failing his own code of honor in loving a woman who is not his to love.