Harriet Hapgood has always delighted in arranging the lives of others, while generally doing as she pleased. And after having thwarted her cousin Caroline’s engagement the previous summer, what better way to pass a dull winter than in helping Caroline to a new husband? Her cousin sets her sights on the glittering Mr. St. John Rotherwood, so Hetty cheerfully puts her shoulder to the matchmaking wheel.

St. John Rotherwood didn’t always glitter.

A magnificent inheritance has catapulted the erstwhile impoverished Oxford mathematics tutor to the top of London society, where he finds himself eagerly pursued as a matrimonial prize. This apotheosis has not been an unqualified blessing, however. The attention is wearisome, and his formerly humble mother has been transformed by ambition. Is it nostalgia for his university days that draws St. John to Miss Hapgood, sister of his former pupil?

Hetty feels the lure of the season’s most eligible bachelor, but when an evening’s lark leads to scandal, she discovers society has laws as rigorous as any found in mathematics.

She could let Mr. Rotherwood rescue her, but if the world breaks her will, will it also break her heart?