Richard Digby returns home upon news of his father's failing health, never expecting to become enamored with Rose, one of the housemaids.

When a wounded soldier and self-proclaimed "beast" finds unlikely friendship with a headstrong and unconventional beauty, they quickly find themselves weaving a tale as old as time... Despite a hero's return to England from the Napoleonic Wars, Wesley Audley isolates from the ton. Deep wounds from the horrors of combat--and the despair of a broken heart--left him scarred. As he struggles to cope and resume his place in Polite Society, Wesley is quick...