Bristow does “a grand job of storytelling” (the New York Times) in this memorable novel of the late eighteenth-century pioneers who settled the Louisiana wilderness, establishing a civilization of charm, luxury, and tragic injustice     

For his service in the king’s army during the French and Indian War, Judith Sheramy’s father, a Puritan New Englander, is granted a parcel of land in far-off Louisiana. As the family ventures down the Mississippi to make a new home in the wilderness, Judith meets Philip Larne, an adventurer who travels in the finest clothes Judith has ever seen. He is a rogue, a killer, and a thief—and the first thing he steals is Judith’s heart.

Three thousand acres of untamed jungle, overrun with jaguars, Indians, and pirates, wait for Philip in Louisiana. He and Judith will struggle with their stormy marriage and the challenges of the American Revolution as they strive to build an empire for future generations.

This is the first novel in Gwen Bristow’s Plantation Trilogy, which also includes The Handsome Road and This Side of Glory.