I came into this, never before reading a Jervey Tervalon novel, and I must say hats off to the author, because this story is pure genius.Tervalon paints pictures with his words as we travel in time to the 1940's, in the searing and humid city of New Orleans, Louisiana. We meet the Du Champ girls, Lita, and Adele who make up 2 parts of a family filled with deep secrets and much drama.For the spirited and young Lita Du Champ, New Orleans is a place subjugated by her diligent mother, Helen who basically holds the family up. Devoted to her mother -- and sisters - she works very hard to keep the family together while making an effort to institute a life of her own.When her beautiful, restive and MARRIED sister Adele falls in love with their mother's enemy, Lucien Faure -- a smooth operator with "the devil's good looks", Lita divulges her mother's mystifying past... With this new information, Lita finds that she has one last, frantic chance to save the destiny of the ones she loves.