Asphodel Quick fights her wicked great-uncle for possession of her grandmother's legacy—the Black Hart Hotel on the remote North York moors. Her uncle demands she marry him or be tossed into the dread Harrowlick Lunatic Asylum. Then a dashing highwayman aids her, firing more than her business desires.

Returned from the lawless Australian goldfields to defy the family curse, Farlan Blackitter is the fourth Baron Blackitter—if only he can find the papers to prove it. Acting as a highwayman, he steals the engagement ring of a feisty flame-haired, pub-owning wench—and yields his own blackened heart in exchange.
 
Together Farlan and Asphodel battle all the forces arrayed against them, in an exhilarating race across the wild moors.