A woman of independent means with a healthy dose of cynicism about those of the male persuasion, Harriet Tremayne is content with her circle of spinster friends and their devotion to literature, women's rights, and intellectual interests. When she determines to undertake the London season for her beautiful but featherbrained niece, however, she concedes she must appear less a bluestocking and more fashionable to successfully sponsor this impossible young lady whose only real desire, it seems, is to consume chocolate.

Certainly, her modish new appearance has nothing to do with the attentions of Lord Dangerfield, a wicked man of the world who has designs on the fair niece yet spends an inordinate amount of time trying to sell Harriet on the virtues of his all-too-obvious attributes.