Cobbler's apprentice Thomas Williams is on his way out for the night when he's stuffed into a carriage and whisked away from the staid life he's always known. Stolen away from his Quaker master, Thomas is sold into the household of Leon Chambellan, a Frenchman also known as the Keeper. Caught up in the latent sensuality of the keeper's home, Thomas finds his resistance slowly crumbling, and he submits to Chambellan's charm. Pursued by his new master, jealously hated by this rival, Alex, Thomas must learn survive in a world completely alien to anything he has known before. A world of beauty, brutality, rivalry and intrigue that threatens to destroy him before he can win his rightful place at Chambellan's side.