In Colonial Virginia, Hannah Verner --- once indentured servant, now thewidow of a wealthy planter --- shocks society by personally supervising herbeloved plantation, Malvern. Learning that her husband, who was killed in amysterious accident, has left the place heavily mortgaged to arrogant,enigmatic Courteney Wayne, she determines to free herself from his debt. Butshe cannot free herself from her own attraction to Courteney, for he hasignited the warm passion she has suppressed for too long. Their joyouslyabandoned affair leaves her vulnerable --- and she is shattered when shelearns that Courteney might have engineered her husband's death as part ofhis scheme to possess Malvern.Heartsick, she sails for France, where her daughter, Michele, has beenpursuing her own dreams in the famous ballet school of Arnaud Deampierre.Dazzled and inspired by the charismatic master, Michele triumphs at herdebut --- even catching the eye of King Louis himself. But success is acostly prize, as she discovers when her lover, handsome Scottish aristocratIan MacLeven, proposes marriage --- under one condition: As lady of MacLevenCastle, she must give up the ballet for which she has worked so long. Andyet the lure of the theater is so powerful --- with its glamour, its promiseof stardom, and the mesmerizing attraction of the master, Deampierrehimself.