Terrell believes very strongly in an ordered, practical lifestyle. Nothing good, after all, ever came from following impractical urges and impulses. Nearly finished with school, it is time to focus on the next step in his life—settling down at his estate, Fivecoats, and marrying a suitable spouse to oversee it while he pursues his academic leanings. When his father sends word that he has found the ideal man for Terrell to marry, Terrell can only be pleased—despite the misgivings of his best friend. Marriage, after all, is perfectly practical, and such things as romance highly impractical. Kirian wants nothing to do with practicality. His parents chose to be happy over being practical, and he refuses to settle for less, no matter what everyone around him says. But then he is forced to marry a man who is colder than ice, settle into a marriage that seems to be in all ways practical, but in no way happy. But beneath the surface of his new spouse, Kirian sees something far from icy, something he realizes he wants—but which seems to belong to another man.