Wounded and dispirited, Ulysses Cade returns from the Civil War to the town of Royal Creek, to find his parents and sister dead. While his old friend Dr. Amos Thompson tends his injury, Ulysses encounters pretty Abby Lamont, who immediately falls in love with him. But Ulysses, unsure of his own feelings, is seduced by Eunice Hadley, Amos' beautiful and reckless niece, and they soon marry. Goaded by Eunice to achieve wealth and power, shattered by her clandestine love affairs, Ulysses becomes bitter and disillusioned, realizing too late that it is Abby he truly loves. So begins the dynamic saga of lust and violent emotion; of infidelity and greed; of tragedy and torment; and of the bond that unites a woman and two men despite their divergent destinies, a bond that will persist from generation to generation...