Lord Rotham must marry to secure his inheritance, and decides to turn the search for a bride into a wager with his cronies. As he follows through with the terms of the bet, he is horrified when the woman he chooses by chance turns out to be none other than his first love, who he believes jilted him for no reason six years earlier. Claire Ellison is now a widow after an unhappy marriage, and is determined not to let Lord Rotham steal her heart again.
Severity reflects intensity, not value — “central theme” means a warning is a core part of the book, not that the book is bad.