Johari Clayborn has given everything she has to building her own cosmetics company, Sparkling Gem. But it isn't enough. The company's going under, and Johari sees no way out of her current predicament than to sell the company to Schone Haut, the beauty juggernaut owned by the Vollmer family. Rald Vollmer wants nothing more than to be rid of his wife, Helga. On paper, she looks like the perfect foil for his up-and-coming business persona, but in reality she's nothing short of psychotic. Sparkling Gem, and the woman who created it, presents him with the perfect chance to break free of his family's influence. It's just a business arrangement, he tells himself, carefully calculated to give him what he wants. But the better he gets to know Johari, the less he's able to stay emotionally aloof, and what began as a calculated plan rapidly turns into something much, much more personal.