Frank is a Yorkshire librarian in love with a beautiful stranger named Miranda. The elusive and enigmatic Miranda presents many facades: she's a businesswoman or a dancer in different tellings, and though Frank enjoys the chase after her identity, he wonders if he can maintain his hold on such an exotic creature. The plot thickens as Miranda, in reality a confidence woman wedged in a complex set of schemes between her Svengali-like mentor Christian and sleazy millionaire Nailor, is pressured for cash by the one and sex by the other.