Eloise was born out of wedlock and raised in a frugal environment by her single mother. After her mother's death, she determinedly writes a letter to her father: the Viscount Pulborough. She asks him if he's ever spared her or her mother a second thought, but three weeks pass without a reply. One night, Eloise attends a work party and runs into the Viscount's stepson! He bluntly tells her that upper-class folks like him are used to gold diggers like her swarming around them…and that if she thinks she's squeezing any money out of him or his family, she's got another thing coming!