England, 1383: thirty years ago, the Black Death overturned the social order. Two years ago, a band of rebels tried and failed to oppose their unfair taxation at the hands of the king's men. In the Nottinghamshire countryside, however, Elizabeth has bigger problems: she's fallen pregnant by her employer, is the sole supporter of her widowed mother and her younger siblings, and needs to find a husband - fast. She's just about ready to despair at her lack of prospects when hope appears from an unexpected source: her best friend Matthew, upon learning of her situation, offers to marry her to keep her and her child safe.

Matthew's problem isn't that he doesn't want to marry Elizabeth - quite the opposite. He's been quietly in love with her since they were children, holding his tongue because he knew she would never be able to marry and leave her family behind. He'd assumed that this state of affairs was permanent, and had been busy fending off his sister's attempts at marrying him off when Elizabeth tells him she's in need of a husband and he impulsively offers her his hand in marriage. No, his problem is that he can't tell her that he's actually marrying her for love - after all, she believes it's a matter of convenience, and if he confessed his true feelings, it would throw their whole relationship off-balance. But while he'd resigned himself to pining from afar, he hadn't been prepared to pine from one side of a shared bed . . .

As Matthew and Elizabeth learn to live together as man and wife, it becomes increasingly clear that the affection between them is growing into something more than the bond between childhood friends. But as vassals, their lives are not their own, and threats to their respective families threaten to tear them apart just as they've begun to find each other.