On Leaving Charleston

From the waning glory of the Old South...

The plantation house, the lands, the golden traditions of Ashley Barony made it the pride of Charleston. But its fortunes fell violently, irrevocably, on Margaret Garden Tradd's scandalous wedding day.

To the wild razzle-dazzle of the jazz age....

From an ugly duckling love child, Garden Tradd became the glorious belle her mother, Margaret, had longed to be. Garden's marriage to the dashing Yankee, Sky Harris, was a triumph -- the match of a decade.

With breathtaking abandon and dazzling innocence, she danced through Paris, London, and New York as the twenties roared...until betrayal turned the glitter to bitter ash....until vengeful secrets of the past sent her home to Charleston--a city waiting to embrace its own or exact its own very special revenge.