Country girl Henrietta has been abandoned quite suddenly by the man she thought of as her sweetheart. While grieving in the shadows during a London ball, she meets a man who is bewilderingly handsome. That man is Count Deben, and he has a reputation as a playboy. Perhaps he's grown bored of the girls who swarm to him like bees to nectar, but why would he be interested in her? Henrietta is surveying him cautiously when Count Deben directs a challenging gaze her way and declares that he will make her the brightest flower of high society.