She had always known what it was to be a woman, to want what women want. And now, on the night of New Orleans' most dazzling ball, a lifetime of smoldering passions drew her into the deepening twilight, into the bayous that echoed still with voodoo chants and drumbeats. Defying the savage embraces of highwaymen and aristocrats, through cruel terrain and the blazing furor of the Civil War, Leah would face all Fate had in store for her - to quench the wild longings that inflamed her, to quell the pounding of her aching heart.