Adam Deveril, a hero of Salamanca, returns from the Peninsula War to find his family on the brink of ruin and his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. He is now Viscount Lynton, with the responsibility of saving the estate, and the only way to do so is to marry an heiress. He is introduced to Mr. Jonathan Chawleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth and no social Adam Deveril, a hero of Salamanca, returns from the Peninsula War to find his family on the brink of ruin and his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. He is now Viscount Lynton, with the responsibility of saving the estate, and the only way to do so is to marry an heiress. He is introduced to Mr. Jonathan Chawleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth and no social ambitions for himself -- but with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his only daughter, the quiet and decidedly plain Jenny Chawleigh.