In 1848, with the waning glory days of the sugar plantations of the Danish West Indies, tensions are mounting. The government is losing touch with the Cruzan plantation aristocracy, and both underestimate the enormous slave population. The King has decreed all newborn negro babies will be born free and promised to free all slaves in twelve years. Plantation owners fear for their future, certain of economic ruin. But a much more imminent threat looms with the beating of tribal drums and suspicious behavior of slaves and free blacks alike. As the three worlds are about to collide on the tropical paradise of St. Croix, Seraphine Petersen finds it increasingly difficult to straddle the racial divide. Should she side with the family of her slave mother, or her Danish father, or the handsome Scottish planter who has captured her heart? When a secret from her past explodes into her already chaotic world, there is no telling what the outcome will be as it appears she may abandon them all.