When General Alec Hay, the Earl of Errol returns from war, his mother is determined to see him wed. Once known for his dark good looks, Alec now bears a scar over half his face that makes every potential bride cringe. He wants only to escape into the darkest room in his ruined castle and relive the harrowing moments in battle when he couldn't save his friend. Ignoring his demands to be left alone, his mother throws a rousing house party at her Edinburgh estate. Unable to take another setup for flirtation, he rides his horse out onto their property and becomes stuck in some ruins during a torrential downpour.
Lady Giselle Hepburn, an impulsive lass, rides out from a neighboring estate in the same storm, attempting to escape her family and a forced marriage to a man with a vicious dark side. She falls off her horse and nearly tumbles over a cliff but is saved by a handsome, mysterious Highlander. With a twisted ankle, and the weather too dangerous to attempt riding, Giselle agrees to wait out the storm with the stranger.
To Alec's shock, Giselle is the first woman who doesn't shy away from his scar and treats him like a man rather than a hideous barbarian. As the storm rages through the night, they each confess their meddling family's determination to see them wed--and he learns her intended is his greatest enemy. Alec insists that she accompany him back to his house to convalesce, where he presents her with a solution to both of their problems: -what if they wed each other in secret? Could a marriage of convenience free them both from their unwanted troubles, or will love be an incredibly inconvenient development?