An anthropologist and an admissions officer at Boston University, Brigette is having a streak of bad luck.First, her archaeologist boyfriend of six years announces that hes finally gotten his own dig in Egypt and theres no place for her there.

Then she loses her job.At loose ends, Brigette goes home to her mother, who is zealously pursuing her familys genealogy.Brigette has no interest in her ancestors, but since she has nothing else to do, she agrees to help her mom with the research, and what Brigette finds out about their past changes the course of her life.

Fascinated by Wachiwi, the Crow princess who married the French marquis, Brigette heads off to France to seek firsthand information about her illustrious forebears.In typical Steel fashion, two women in two different time periods each have first loves that end in disaster, but the women become stronger as a result of their loss.Steel pairs the engrossing, exciting chronicle of Wachiwi, a brave and powerful nineteenth-century woman, with Brigettes more circumspect tale of a modern woman who finds the courage to change because of Wachiwis example in a novel that is sure to be a hit with a broad array of readers.