Catherine Parker has been brought up in the lap of luxury, and has always expected she would someday make an expedient marriage, but when her Papa insists she marry a man she knows he despises she has no choice. But will she find the love and companionship she craves, or is she merely trading one kind of hell for another? Can she trust a stranger to care more for her than her own father? Tom Shandon is a good man. Everyone in town likes him and trusts him. On a whim he offers Catherine the hope she needs, but at what cost? Is he truly the man he seems, or does he have a past nobody would ever suspect?