Her high school graduation just days away, Gabriel Landry is blissfully happy - until rich cannery owner Octavious Tate waylays her near a secluded pond and shatters her innocence, forever.

Pregnant and desolate, Gabriel agrees to a shocking plan that will allow Octavious's frigid wife, Gladys, to claim the baby as her own. But nothing can prepare Gabriel for the terrible moment when Gladys takes her baby away.

Drifting in a world of gloom, Gabriel is only comforted by chance glimpses of her son, until a hunting party brings handsome Creole millionaire Pierre Dumas to the bayou. Falling desperately in love, Gabriel will not heed the voice warning her that their joy may bring her more grief than she can bear.