It’s the Gilded Age and cotton is king once again. The port of New Orleans bustles with foreign steamships. Gentlemen with big ideas make and lose fortunes in a flash, while ladies, well-schooled in flirting, invite conversation with the tilt of a fan—or gently lift their skirts to reveal a well-turned ankle.

From whore houses to hat shops, from gaslit double parlors to Mardi Gras parades and private masked balls, Ursula LeCoeur paints a lively city where the fortunes of five families intertwine. The Soniats, Deselles and Colvilles, old French families with plantations upriver and town homes in the French Quarter, must overcome their distrust of newcomers in order to find everlasting love. Meanwhile, the Devon and Collins families, entrepreneurs and cotton factors with trunks of money, must adapt to the complex and often mysterious culture of New Orleans.

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