Lawrence Swift, incorrigible rake, elegant gentleman, man of substantial income, and member of an elite social circle in London, has never particularly cared for anything. Life has always been pleasure to him, and a pleasure languidly gotten. Leisure, seduction, and wealth are the things that he values, and the ones he lives by. What he lives by until, unexpectedly, the women he has wronged - and the children he has had by them - hold him to task.