Renowned composer and pianist Elisabeth Winters returns to the United States from Europe only to discover that her life is in danger. Although she wants nothing but to perform her concerts, she finds herself embroiled in layers of political and personal turmoil that have intertwined through the years she's been abroad - and her life is in jeopardy.

As she invokes controversy on many levels, her world becomes more chaotic with the treachery she discovers taking place in her own inner circle. AS the daughter of a prominent abolitionist senator who was murdered many years before, she discovers that the powerful men who killed him are now out for her blood as well.

When William de la Cuesta rescues her under extraordinary circumstances, she can't deny her feelings of trust for him. Yet there is something that disturbs her as well...a memory she can't quite grasp. He is suave, intelligent, and charming, but does he want to kill her?