Left penniless and alone after her parents' sudden deaths, beautiful young Alina Langley is desperate to earn some money to pay off their debts when, quite out of the blue, her friend the glamorous Denise Sedgewick, arrives at her home from London in a smart carriage.

Now a famous Society beauty she has come to ask Alina for help. The man Denise loves has gone to Rome, upset after Denise deliberately made him jealous at a party and Denise is desperate to follow him and win him back.

Her plan is to travel with her cousin, Lord Teverton, who is on a special Diplomatic mission for the Prime Minister, but her father will not let her go without a proper chaperone.

Since there is no one else she can really trust, she persuades Alina to pretend to be her mother, Lady Langley.

Dressed as a sophisticated woman of nearly forty when she is just twenty, Alina meets the unfriendly but handsome Lord Teverton, who is instantly entranced by her.

The trouble is, so is the persistently amorous Prince Alberto Borghese, who pursues Alina with considerable determination and cunning.

And when Lord Teverton comes not once but twice to her rescue, Alina realises that she has fallen completely in love with him, but how can she explain that she is not the woman of the world she pretends to be but a simple girl who has never before been kissed?