A story of two people thrown together on a journey of discovery that defines what each most want of life, love, and family: a gentleman wishing to buy a fabulous horse and a lady set on protecting her family find common ground while pursuing a thief who upends both of their plans.

Nicholas Cynster rides up to Aisby Grange determined to secure the stallion known as the Barbarian for his family's thoroughbred breeding stable, only to be turned away by the owner's daughter. Nicholas retreats but is not about to be denied by any lady, no matter how startlingly beautiful and distracting.

Lady Adriana Sommerville knows Nicholas will be back and resigns herself to having to manage his interaction with her aging father. She successfully negotiates that potential quagmire only, at the very last moment, to discover that the horse is missing.

Stunned, Addie insists on setting out in pursuit and is not so silly as to refuse Nicholas's support. But as they follow on the heels of the Barbarian, their adventures and encounters open their eyes to the prospect of a more enduring partnership.

Yet before they can follow that trail farther and before they can lay hands on the horse, through shock after shock, their pursuit uncovers a complicated plot that strips away masks and rescripts everything Addie and her siblings thought they knew about the Sommerville family.