Pandora Marsh and her impoverished family are bewildered when she receives a valuable emerald necklace from an unknown admirer. Only later does she find out that it was a gift from an elderly nobleman to his mistress but misdirected to her house. When the nobleman dies, his stuffy but handsome nephew Lord Sarsbrook confronts Pandora about her relationship with his uncle. Although he does not believe her statements of innocence, Sarsbrook unaccountably also cannot stop thinking about Pandora, and decides that maybe she would be willing to be kept under his protection too.