Frances Allard and Lucius Marshall, Viscount Sinclair, meet as implacable enemies during a snowstorm, when his carriage forces hers off the road and deep into a snow bank. But hostility thaws and their relationship heats up fast when they are stranded together for a couple of days at a deserted inn. Even so, as they go their separate ways each believes that their encounter was forgettable. A few months later, though, they meet again by chance at an evening party in Bath and realize how wrong they were.