For beautiful young Ivana her stepfather Keith Waring is no replacement for her much-missed father, the Honourable Hugo Sherard, who was killed in Spain fighting against Napoleon Bonaparte. Her stepfather is a spendthrift and he has gambled away virtually everything the family owns. Ivana's hatred for her stepfather is doubled when, to her utter horror, she overhears him offering her as a 'kept woman' to the equally despised Lord Hanford for over five thousand pounds! Ivana runs away with her old Nanny acting as her chaperone and companion and applies for work through a Domestic Agency, where she is invited to apply for a post using her flawless Parisian French for the Earl of Lorimer, who is working in the War Office. Expecting a man to apply for the post, the imperious but handsome Earl is at first sceptical, but on realising that he knew her father, he soon warms to her, saying that he has a 'difficult and dangerous mission for her!' Ivana is to become a spy, working undercover against Napoleon's secret agents. And so her perilous adventures begin. Very soon she loses her heart - and at every turn she risks losing her life. But the worst danger of all comes not from the wartime enemy but from the evil Lord Hanford who is still determined to possess her as he has already paid for her.