In the days of pre-Civil War slavery - the unforgettable novel of a shocking portion of our American heritage. The time was not all magnolia blossoms and crinolines. It was more than romance and splendor. It was debauchery and slavery, gambling tables and dens of iniquity. It was murder and forgiveness. It was all the great contradiction of life in a golden era...

They lived in a world of secret guilts.... Rafaella: At 17 she had a beauty that could possess and destroy. No man was safe from her, not even her father....