On the evening of the Great Fire of Chicago, Lucy Hathaway, frantic to get out of the path of the fire, is shocked when a baby is tossed into her arms from the window of a burning building moments before it collapses. Four years later, Lucy has raised little Maggie as her own child. But when she encounters the infuriating and handsome Randolph Higgins, an old acquaintance whose daughter perished in the fire, Lucy knows that Maggie is his missing child. For the sake of the child the two decide to marry, denying their attraction for one another, but passionate clashes over Lucy's increasingly scandalous political pursuits keep them at odds, and put Rand's career -- and their lives -- in jeopardy.