Crimson rays from the sun's morning light shine on an isolated bayou and expose the body of a young woman.Mignon Thibeaux, a renowned artist and recently returned local, is adapting to the slow-paced life of the Cane River and its enigmatic people. It is she who finds the young woman floating in the bayou, strangled and left in the timorous dark waters. It is also Mignon who will become embroiled in the hunt for the person who is responsible for the young woman's death.Mignon will discover she has more in common with the dead girl than she would have ever imagined, including being related to Mignon's murdered mother. The exotic world of the Louisianan Creoles has bloomed into a locale providing the impetus for a vile murder. Danger and knowledge vie for dominance, and only Mignon can unravel its secrets.