On tour in America in 1859, Emily Harris, a young English actress at the height of her fame, meets and marries the charming Charles Earl Brook. But Charles has kept a terrible secret: he is a slave-owner, master of a plantation in which seven hundred men, women and children live in abject poverty. Forced to accompany her husband south, Emily's attempts to help the slaves put her in great danger. And when civil war breaks out, she realises she stands to lose everything she has ever loved.

Set against the brilliantly realised backdrop of the American Civil War in the heart of the deep south, Sugar Island is a story of love and loss in a time of chaos.