In Gay Courter’s bestselling sweeping saga, beautiful and talented Margaret Claiborne receives everything she dreamed—and everything she dreaded. A sheltered and convent-bred American, she and her family flee the defeated South to Brazil. In this distant land, that has its own rules about life and love, Margaret meets and marries her best friend’s brother, the most powerful man in Rio. Though he adores her, blond, god-like Erik Larson harbors his dark secrets from Margaret: his exotic mistresses and his children of mixed race. When Margaret first meets Joaquim, she already knows of his reputation as Brazil’s most famous composer and the toast of the civilized world. Now, just being in his presence quickens her heartbeat and heats her blood. Even as Margaret feels herself being swept up by a feeling she has never known before, she cannot shut her eyes to the knowledge that everything about this man—from the color of his skin to his social class to the fact that he is not her husband—puts him beyond the pale for a woman of her position.