Librarian Antonia Gray has fled England for northern Tuscany to recover after an unhappy love affair and to work on the archive of a 17th century Italian explorer, a member of a centuries-old aristocratic family. There she meets his descendent, Lorenzo Quattromani, rich, arrogant, handsome - and engaged to the beautiful and ruthless Swiss Giselle. The last thing Antonia wants is to fall in love, least of all with someone so incredibly dangerous. His engagement, though, is not what it seems, but while Lorenzo breaks down Antonia’s resistance, Giselle has other ideas.