Sailing home to England with her two younger brothers, the intrepid Miss Zara Greeley plucks a half-drowned stranger from icy seas. The handsome man says he's a duke-a claim Zara is tempted to believe, for only a duke could be so impossibly arrogant, especially when their ship runs aground on a Scottish island during the storm, and they are forced to do manual labor in a brewer to earn their passage to the mainland.

Prestwick wants nothing more than to part ways with the sharp-tongued young lady and resume his life of genteel leisure. But Fate quickly plunges the pair into another encounter. Zara and her brothers have come to reclaim their inheritance from an unscrupulous cousin...and suddenly the duke finds himself caught up in the dispute-along with conflicting currents of duty and desire...and what really matters in Life.