When pirates overrun his paddleboat and his new bride Lierin is tossed into the dangerous river, Ashton Wingate is sure he has lost her forever. Three years later, Ashton's carriage collides with a rider, and he is certain that the unconscious beauty is his lost wife. But when the woman revives, she remembers nothing but faint memories of a dark and murderous night, and feels only trepidation in the arms of her so-called husband.