When family disaster overwhelmed Amelia Belchamber and obliged her to make a new life for herself in the north of England, she was only doing what countless gentlewomen in her desperate position had done before. But Amelia had not counted on a family quite as trying as the Hoggetts. Amelia's troubles began when Mr. Hoggett, a manufacturer of cottons and canvases, leaves her alone to cope with no less than eight wayward offspring, unsupported in any way by the weak and foolish Mrs. Hoggett. To make matters worse, she becomes the amorous object of the odious tutor, Mr. Bethune. And yet the final blow comes when Amelia finds herself the innocent victim of a total miscarriage of justice. But hope is not dead, for - in the nick of time - an unorthodox knight in somewhat less than shining armor has learned of Amelia's predicament and girded himself to ride to her rescue.