Hired by Lady Eleanor Woods to teach her brother sign language, Anna Leighton is startled to discover her pupil isn't a child, as she expected, but a young man approximately her own age. David Woods, 27th Baron Mayfield, has been deaf since the age of five. Now approaching his majority, he faces a competency hearing filed by a greedy cousin wanting his inheritance. The baron is a quick study, but unfortunately some of the things he wants to learn aren't on the usual curriculum. Even worse, Anna finds herself responding to his inexperienced advances. Is she betraying the trust of a naive student placed in her care, or is David more knowledgeable than even his sister suspects?