The novel was originally published in 1985 by Pocket Books, a branch of Simon & Schuster, Inc. After a young Whitney Stone's mother dies, her father Martin is unable to handle her tomboyish antics and sends Whitney off to France with her aunt and uncle, Lady Anne and Lord Edward Gilbert, a diplomat.

While in France, she is educated by a variety of language, dance, and etiquette tutors, coming to age as a fashionable and witty young lady.

When Paul proposes, Whitney eagerly tells her father, only for him to reveal that he had spent her dowry and sold her in marriage to the Duke of Claymore in exchange for a large sum of money to save the family home from ruin.

Convinced they can run away and pay back the dowry money her father spent, Whitney reveals the situation to Paul.

James calls her a "brilliant tutor" in the craft of romance, especially through suspending reality and creating romantic relationships in her novels.

[5] Furthermore, the codes and language within the romance novel genre, create a community of female readers sharing in similar emotions and knowledge.

Most notably, the 1999/2000 edition and republication resulted in a 180-page addition to the original story, changing at least two scenes and extending the final ending.