Nothing in Brazil is as it first seems, convent-bred Margaret Claiborne is warned when she arrives in Rio de Janeiro, a city named for a non-existent river. One of many who fled the defeated South to Brazil after the Civil War, Margaret is a brilliant pianist, but an innocent about a distant land that has its own rules about life and love. Here Margaret meets and marries her best friend's brother, the most powerful man in Rio. Though he adores her, Erik Larson harbors his dark secrets from Margaret leaving her to find a unique identity of her own.