Deze meeslepende saga duikt in het Amerika van het begin van de 19e eeuw en volgt de verweven levens van een familie te midden van cruciale historische omwentelingen. Volg de personages van de saloons van Natchez tot de intriges van New Orleans, terwijl ze de turbulente grens en het complexe sociale landschap van de Mississippi-plantages doorkruisen. De serie verdiept zich in thema's als overleving, lotsbestemming en de zoektocht naar identiteit tegen de achtergrond van nationale transformatie. Het is een boeiende verkenning van veerkracht, ambitie en de blijvende menselijke geest tijdens een transformerend tijdperk.
It is 1861, and Angel Woolsack is a confederate about to breathe his last, as the Union forces make their inexorable approach. Rejected by his wife, his wealth no longer useful to him, he sets about recording his testament.
New Orleans, May 1862. The largest city in the ill-starred confederacy has fallen to Union troops . When twelve-year-old Joseph Woolsack disappears from his home, her terrifies his mother Elise and enrages his father Angel. Joseph must come to grips with his father's legacy of violence, and his growing affection for his neighbor, the Cuban orphan girl Marina Fandal. Elise must struggle to maintain a hold on her sanity, her son and her station, but is threatened by the resurgence of a troubling figure from her past, Dr. Emile Sabatier, a fanatical physician who adores disease and is deeply mired in the conspiracy and intrigue surrounding the occupation of the city. These characters' paths all intersect with General Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, a man who history will call a beast, but whose avarice and brutal acumen are ideally suited to the task of governing an "ungovernable city."
Set against the backdrop of the Gulf Coast in 1914, the narrative follows Isaac, a nature-loving artist with a mysterious past, and Kemper, a defiant heiress entangled in family rivalries. As they seek solace in their idyllic surroundings, tensions rise within Kemper's family, particularly with her brothers Angel and Red, whose secrets and violence threaten their refuge. The story intertwines themes of love, family drama, and the looming shadow of World War I, exploring the complex legacy of beauty and turmoil that defines their lives and the region.