While attending a country party, Sarah Moorehouse and her literary group have undertaken a new task – create the perfect man. To accomplish this task, each of them is to steal some garment from a male guest. Sarah is to steal a shirt from their host, and thinking him elsewhere, she has crept into his bedroom to get the shirt. She isn’t prepared for his entry into the room, nor for the sight of him stripping to take a bath. She is discovered when the floorboard under her foot creaks.

When Sarah doesn’t act like the typical woman of the era, Matthew is enamoured and wants to know more of this person. As they learn more about each other, Matthew is convinced this is the wife for which he has been searching  -- one problem: He needs a wife with an inheritance to cover the expenses of his estate and Sarah has no inheritance.