Setting and Background

New Orleans. 1905. Yellow Fever!

With the death of their parents, sixteen-year old Marty Mckinstry and his brother and sister are sent to separate homes.

Plot and Conflict

As Marty fights to reunite his family, they endure abusive orphanages, a voodoo baptism, bare-knuckle prize fighting, forced snake handling, and death threats from a powerful shipping magnate, Reginald Landus.

When Marty meets and falls in love with a rancher's daughter, Celeste Byrd, her rejected suitor, Gavin York, follows them to New Orleans, vowing to kill them.

Themes

The novel explores the depth of family love, as well as the love between a man and a woman.