Agatha 'Aggie' Stevens decided to join the Army as a nurse to make a difference. Having lived a charmed childhood, she felt it was important to do something worthwhile as an adult, but she didn't expect it to be so difficult. Dr. Roark Merrick was a surgeon in the same unit. He never smiled or laughed, and he never mixed business with pleasure. He was an enigma who kept to himself, and there was nothing Aggie liked more than to poke the bear. It wasn't uncommon for her to let her mind wander in the direction of Roark because it made the days go faster. Now, Aggie's tour is over and it's time for her to go home, ending the business between her and Roark, but does that mean it's time for pleasure? What will happen when she returns home and Roark stays behind?

October 1886 Captain Avery Murphy finds his live unfulfilling and lacking any sort of challenge. He feels as if the world is passing him by. Having purchased his niece's house after she returned to England, he finds that the house place only reminds him of what's missing in his life. Wife and children Having lived for years haunted by the deaths of his wife and child and having his fortieth birthday, Captain Murphy decides it's time to move on and find a wife never suspecting that said wife might already be under his roof. Newly widowed Priscilla Brightmore is desperate for employment and down to a very few precious coins, she seeks a housekeeper's position at Captain Murphy's house in Bridgeport. Without references, Priscilla convinces the present housekeeper to give her a two weeks trial, hoping that once her foot in in the door, so to speak, she can prove herself to the woman and keep the position. After saving his life, Avery takes notice for the first time of his new housekeeper and finds under the disguise of drab clothes and hairstyle a betwitching woman. A woman he finds very much he is attracted to. With a whirlwind courship and marriage life settles into all that Avery and Priscilla hoped it would be for them until Avery's past changes everything between them.