Lieutenant Crawford Treynor has fought valiantly for everything he has. The bastard child of a noblewoman, he was handed over as an infant to a poor farmer-and beaten so badly that he ran away at age fourteen. Now a respected officer, he vows to command his own frigate one day. There is no place in his life for a woman, especially one of noble birth. He has no love for the aristocracy...

After narrowly escaping the guillotine in the French Revolution, petite beauty Jeannette Boucher agrees to secure her family's future by marrying a wealthy English baron. But when she learns what her impotent husband has planned in order to produce an heir, she escapes on their wedding night, stowing away aboard Lieutenant Treynor's ship. Once she's discovered, the handsome, duty-bound lieutenant is tempted enough by her beauty and spirit to go against everything he believed he'd ever do-and soon he must decide between returning her to a husband he knows will abuse her, or risking everything to keep her all to himself.