When Savannah Clare sails into New York harbour, her dark green eyes are anxious. What will the future hold? She knows so little of her past. American-born, she was taken to England for a genteel upbringing, when her mother died And now she is bound for the Deep South and the plantation which her father owns. Hut why has he never acknowledged her existence by even a letter? Aboard a Mississippi steamship the piercing gaze of raven-haired Rue Delaney, a riverboat gambler, tempts Savannah into bitter sweet desire. She longs to accept his offer of marriage, but a few short weeks have made her worldly wise, and she cannot believe Rue's honied words. Under the dark shadow of Civil War, their destinies again become dangerously intertwined when,after her father’s death, Savannah learns that her mother was a mulatto. She is bylaw, a slave -- and must trade herself to save the life of the man she loves.