A year after her Puritanical husband's death, a woman must face the new master of the household--a man she once loved long ago, but now holds in the utmost contempt. Immediately the rogue arranges to hold a Christmas party, shocking the woman with both his brazenness and refusal to behave according to the somber edicts of her dead husband. But at the ball, the man asks for her hand in the last dance, and she has no choice but to accept. For she cannot rightfully refuse the master of the house--or the rising flames of desire within herself.