When heiress Miss Daphne Jones finds herself married to the wrong brother – the black-sheep son of the Duke of Burlington – she has little idea that her groom will promptly disappear after the wedding, or worse, that she'll become a duchess and a widow before her seventeenth birthday.

Seven years later, the young and somewhat eccentric duchess has found contentment in taking care of her younger sisters, her absentminded brother-in-law, and an ever-growing menagerie of pets. The only thing missing from her life is a child of her own; but as she has finally accepted one of the many proposals to come her way, she feels confident this small detail will soon take care of itself.

However, when her husband is deposited on her doorstep, unconscious but very much alive, her life (and heart!) spirals out of her control, and she is faced with a seemingly insurmountable how does one go about seducing a man who seems determined to treat one with avuncular detachment and is set on an annulment?