Laurianne likes nothing more than horses. She wants to breed them and race them and continue her father's business which had been falling apart since his death. Except that her mother has other plans for her. She wishes to marry her off to a rich Earl. Seeing their falling apart finances, Laurianne agrees to marry the man. Except that three days after their wedding he's found dead. Now she's left to put the pieces of his death together, along with his three squabbling daughters and their avaricious suitors. And then there' s her late husband's bastard, a man of little scruples and high ambitions. And he's somehow tied in with her uncle, who wishes for nothing may than to lay his hands on her and her mother's lands.