Lillian's world is full of grand parties of sunshine and promises, but her spirits are crushed the day that her Bible-spouting sister Emily reveals the secret of Lillian's birth, a secret Mama sadly cannot deny Still, Lillian refuses to believe Emily's hateful claim that she is evil, a curse but when tragedy befalls those around her she begins to believe the grim reality Her heart is torn anew and when Papa subjects her to the most brutal degradation in a drunken haze Then Papa loses 'The Meadows' in a card game and the arrogant, handsome playboy Bill Cutler will only return the plantation if Lillian marries him She must leave her girlhood home behind, and make a bold new beginning as the mistress of a hotel called Cutler's Cove