Dora Reynolds is just another Gilbert Girl at the Crest Stone Hotel, and she needs it to remain that way. If anyone found out who she truly is, she'd lose her friends and her position. But when money begins to disappear from the hotel's safe and a handsome new desk clerk arrives, she finds her security-and her heart-under threat.

Jacob Gilbert has finally found the opportunity he needs to prove to his father that he's more than the spoiled, carousing youngest son. Someone is stealing from his family's newest hotel, and, under a strict deadline from his father, Jacob promises to find the thief. Presenting himself as Jake James, he takes a job as a desk clerk at the hotel and begins his investigation. He quickly finds an ally in the beautiful but reticent Dora-even though spending time with her means he's breaking the rules at his own family's hotel.

But finding the thief turns out to be harder than Jacob thought it would be. As he and Dora begin to run out of time and the hotel grows dangerously close to shutting down, Jacob must choose between his feelings for Dora and his desire to win his father's acceptance. And Dora must decide whether trusting Jake with her heart-and her true identity-is worth risking his rejection and her family's only means of survival.