Angela Toussaint Hearne thought her devastating secret would be safe -- after all, her dark hair and tanned complexion merely hinted at French ancestry, and her infant daughter Emma was as fair as her father. But that did little to save her after the revelation that Angela's deceased mother was one-quarter African and a run away slave. All of her descendants are now the property of a cruel and depraved man eager to recover his lost goods. Disowned and shamed by the Hearne family, Angela and her child find themselves journeying as slaves to the wild frontier of Texas.