Profound joy and great anguish link the lives of two families across three generations. The Whitneys and the McKelveys are passionately divided by Kiernan Whitney's hatred of his rival, sugar baron Edward McKelvey. Kiernan's daughter, Joss, needs a lifetime to make sense of the unspoken secret that separates the families - because she is in love with Edward's son. Joss desires to be as unlike her mother as possible, as a consequence. Her relationship with her mother affects her family, her friends, her husband and her lover. Joss tells the story of the family secret as a wedding gift of reconciliation and love for her daughter Anna. Set in the sugar cane estates of Mount Edgecombe, this unconventional romance is a much a study of how women become their mothers, in spite of themselves, as it is a recounting of the human passions and actions that change the course of lives. A Cast of extremely funny minor characters and events form a counterpoint for a moving story of loyalty and love.