The beautiful Alnina Lester is confronted with a formidable task when her brother, Lord Lester, dies after fighting a duel in Paris. He accumulated an enormous number of debts, and to pay his creditors, everything of value that has been in the Lester family for generations has to be sold. But she is still short of money. In her mother’s bedroom, she finds an extraordinary and unusual wedding dress, which her father had bought in China. Exquisitely embroidered, it is decorated with diamante and many precious stones. Her newspaper advertisement is seen by the Duke of Burlingford.