Already abandoned by her father, who long ago had left her and her mother for the gaieties and beautiful courtesans of the Second Empire in Paris, the lovely Lady Theresa Holme is lost when her beloved mother dies. She has inherited a fortune but she finds that blessing is also a curse when her uncle and now Guardian, the new Earl of Denholme, insists that she must marry his son so that he can get his greedy fingers on her money.