James Thorne, the widowed Viscount Tadbury, insists he will never remarry -- not because he could never love again, as the romantics of Society assume, but because he already does. His late wife's brother, Nicholas, who now lives in James's home, educating his sister's children, is the least appropriate person imaginable. To love a man so closely related by law is unseemly, improper, surely dishonorable, and James values honor and propriety above all things. His beloved Nicholas must never know his true feelings, for his opinion of James could only suffer by it.

Nicholas, meanwhile, has been in love with James since the day they met -- the day James was introduced as his sister's betrothed. Of course he could not act on his feelings then, and how can he now? How can he press himself on a grieving widower, or betray his sister's memory?

When Nicholas is badly injured during the social event of the Season -- James's brother's engagement ball -- will one of them be shaken into confessing their feelings? Or will they lose their chance forever?