Goodman Thomas Marlowe needs a wife. He loves his neighbour’s bondswoman Rosalind Abramson but for all the wrong reasons. The carnal passion he feels for her is at odds with his vision of the perfect marriage—something shaped by the memory of the pure, pious union he shared with his late wife. Valiantly, he fights to keep his feelings hidden. Rosalind yearns for the handsome Goodman Marlowe. Yet beneath his kind action lies a cool distance that tells her he cannot forgive Rosalind’s shameful past. She’s determined to deny an infatuation with a man who will never respect her.
However, Thomas cannot focus on finding a bride while the unsuitable Rosalind is always so close and so alluring. Now he’s about to take a teaching position in another town. It’s the perfect escape for a man tormented by unacceptable desire. Late one night, in the midst of a summer’s hot spell, Thomas spies Rosalind in the woods, clad only in her shift, dancing in the moonlight. It’s really more than a man celibate for three years can bear. Thomas is in danger of falling into a sin so powerful, it threatens to challenge everything he believes in.