The ailing Duke of Rochester finds himself on his death bed with no legitimate heirs. Concocting a plan to ‘legitimize’ them all upon his death, he instructs his butler extraordinaire, Reeves, to find the duke’s unsanctioned children and “civilize” them. Reeves’s first assignment is the duke’s oldest illegitimate son, wounded-war-hero-one-time-pirate Tristan Llevanth. Wounded after the Battle of Trafalgar, Tristan sits in his gloomy house and waits for life to pass him by. Unfortunately, his bothersome neighbor, the delectable widow Prudence, has other plans. Reeves wants to mold him into a real duke while Prudence wants Tristan to keep his wandering sheep on his own property. Tristan, for his part, wished to do neither. When Reeves notices a flair of interest in Tristan’s eyes whenever the now-destitute Prudence is about, he hires the lady on the spot to teach Tristan the manners he so sadly needs. Lessons turn into kisses which turn into a hot searing passion that even the threat of losing a fortune cannot disrupt. And eventually, Tristan realizes that in love, as in all things, if one needs the answer, all one must do is just ask Reeves.