Clara Blackburn is the orphan maid to Lady Elizabeth Morgan and is likely to remain so, until a chance meeting with the rich, handsome and highly eligible Charlie Hampton who has managed to get himself involved in a drunken wager either to persuade a lady to marry him or to marry her maid. Overhearing Lady Elizabeth and her cousin, Sir Taylor Rufford's scheme to trap him into marriage and perhaps widowhood to get his money, Clara thwarts the plans. Very quickly, Clara finds herself dismissed without a reference, Charlie feels responsible and decides, along with his until recently estranged grandfather, the Duke of Wensley, to launch Clara into society so that she might find a suitable husband. It becomes increasingly clear that the only suitable husband he considers suitable is himself. When Lady Elizabeth discovers that Clara is not the duke's ward but was her maid, she and her cousin are determined to cause a scandal by unmasking her. When Clara also hears of the terms of the wager, the stage is set for a thunderous climax. There is also the mystery of Clara's birth, she was never a lady, but she was never just a maid either. The Christmas Ball will be the talk of the ton for generations.