When Fate and a chivalrous impulse combine to saddle Viscount Desford with a friendless, homeless waif in the engaging shape of Cherry Steane, who else should he turn to in such a scrape but his childhood playmate, Henrietta Silverdale? And although they refused to oblige their parents by marrying, they have always been the best of friends.

But as Desford pursues Cherry's grandfather and father around the seedier fringes of society, Hetta is forced to wonder if he might not, at last, have fallen in love. Without the timely intervention of his brother Simon, and Hetta's suitor Gary Nethercott, Desford is in danger of making a rare jumble of his affairs.