Marisa is a secretary at a London law firm, and takes time to visit her late brother Gavin's widow and small daughter, her niece. Gavin in Tahiti two years ago while working as a gamekeeper for a wealthy family, and was killed by a lunatic trespasser. Since then his former employers have paid his widow a stipend to maintain her, a generous gesture.
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On one visit, Marisa is forced into the company of Gavin's former employer Antoine, the heir. Antoine and Marisa have met many times before over the years and once she visited Tahiti to see Gavin and stayed in her brother's cottage on the estate. Antoine has always rubbed her the wrong way. His eyes are insolent and his words are cutting, and so she barely speaks to him. However, Antoine takes her aside and flirts with her, and asks her in a somewhat amused and lazy way to do him a favor. He wants to get out of a marriage to an odious woman named Clemence, and he needs her to pretend to be a temporary fiancee. Will she do it? He assures that he will not touch her, pretty as she is. Marisa's first inclination is to refuse, but she's in debt to Antoine because his father pays the bills for her sister-in-law, and so reluctantly agrees to spend 2 weeks in Tahiti pretending to be his fiancee. He doesn't want to be disowned for not marrying.
When she arrives, however, she is greeted with cold surprise as Mme de Vigny, indicating that everyone believes she is Antoine's wife. She is met with shock and disapproval by many members of his family, and kindness from his servants. His mother is dead, and his father is cold and distant. Antoine reveals that she will need to pretend to play his wife, and this arouses her ire. Marisa and Antoine do not touch each other in bed. Clemence, however, wants to marry the gardener, instead of Antoine, and as this becomes apparent, Marisa appreciates the kindness with which Antoine treats her, and the consideration he shows. She is also touched when Antoine stands up for her in front of anyone who criticizes her, like when his father sneers at her family's lack of wealth at the dinner table. Against her will, Marisa begins to fall for Antoine, and they have several almost-brushes with sex, Antoine resisting every time so that he does not deflower her. Marisa is torn between loving him and not trusting him. Eventually when Clemence elopes with the gardener, Antoine's father is infuriated and tells Marisa that he suspects she's not Antoine's real life, compares her to an easy woman, and tells her Antoine will never love her. She had better leave if she wants the best for him.
Marisa is convinced that Antoine's father is telling the truth and is devastated, and runs to Clemence's cottage. Clemence tells her, however, that she always saw in Antoine's eyes that he loved Marisa, and she reveals that it was Antoine's idea to provide for Gavin's family, not his father's. He has loved Marisa all along, but was too proud to show it. When Marisa goes back to find him, she sees Antoine sitting under the shade of a Tahiti lime tree that was the scene of many of their conversations, and she can see the anguish in his face at the idea that she fled. Marisa runs into his arms and reveals everything, including her love, and he kisses her, dragging her to bed and consummating their passion, and huskily reveals that he always wanted to marry her. They get married in a proper ceremony and civil ceremony, and Antoine forces his father to accept the match.
Best part of story, including ending:
I enjoyed the surprisingly smooth prose.
Best scene in story:
When they embrace tearfully under the tree at the end of the book, admitting their love for each other.
Opinion about the main character:
I liked that Antoine had the gumption to defy his family.
