Someone is misusing Max Brandon’s name, resulting in bills for services he never ordered and goods he did not buy. Clearly, he has become the victim of some unknown persons’ campaign of persecution. When the games move closer to home, almost forcing him to fight a duel … more particularly, when they draw in Frances Pendleton, a lady he never expected to see again … Max vows to catch the man behind them, no matter what the cost. The result is a haphazard chase involving ruined abbeys, a hunt for hermits, a grotesque portrait … and a love story which, but for this odd trick of fate, might never have been given a second chance.