Adelaide Cutter had been scarred physically as well as emotionally by the ugly circumstances of her father’s death. Now, as a shy but enthusiastic beginner in an art studio, she was starting a new life for herself. If her tiny Beacon Hill apartment wasn’t much by the standards of her materialistic guardians, at least it meant that Adelaide could have a place to call her own—place where, if nothing else, she could hide from anyone who might notice what a bullet had done to her cheek.

But her quiet life was to change suddenly. Late one night, a well-dressed stranger knocked on Adelaide’s door seeking assistance for her elderly landlady who had collapsed. The emergency was taken care of quickly. But the stranger—Nathaniel West—had become intrigued by tiny, blonde Adelaide, and—when he learned her name—he was intrigued also in learning the details of her father’s death. So, she was soon to learn, was his invalid father, who was full of questions as well as theories.

From her association with the wealthy and independent Wests, Adelaide discovered that she was not, after all, the ugly duckling she had thought she was—nor was she living a very safe life!