'Well constructed and provocative' THE TIMES

'A master storyteller . . . Margaret Mitchell's blunderbuss epic' SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

'Gibbons writes with confidence and imagination' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Emma Garnet Tate Lowell, a plantation owner's daughter, grows up in a privileged lifestyle in the mid-nineteenth century, but it's not all roses. Her family's prosperity is linked to the institution of slavery, and Clarice, a close and trusted family servant, exposes Emma to the truth and history of their plantation and how it brutally affected the slave population.

Her father, Samuel P. Tate, has an aggressive and overpowering persona that intimidates many people--including Emma. But she refuses to conform to his ideals and marries a prominent young doctor. Together they face the horrors of the Civil War, nursing wounded soldiers, as Emma begins the long journey toward her own recovery from the terrible forces that shaped her father's life.