Bostonian Abby Banes thought marrying much older Eli Allyn would be a romantic he would make her the pampered mistress of a plantation on Georgia's glorious seacoast. But she wasn't prepared for the realities of slavery or aching loneliness. And when she finally reached out in friendship to her housekeeper Rosa Moon, she found a lifeline during the tragedy that made her a widow. Now, in a land being pulled apart by turmoil and change, Abby defies Southern tradition to run the plantation alone and to embrace a people's call for freedom. And she never expects the intense emotion that draws her to another man...or to be struck by a passion, fierce as lightning, that knows no bounds.