Chicagoan, Summer Woodfield, is in for the surprise of her life when she inherits the family estate, an antebellum rice plantation in Georgia. Not only is the old plantation in ruin, but comes complete with a cast of characters--characters long dead. The discovery of antiquated love letters stored inside a trunk in the attic sparks uncontrollable curiosity, and especially a purposely placed thumbprint on one of the letters. When Summer touches the print, she is inadvertently whisked back in time to the Civil War, not as the mistress of the manor as she dreams to be in the 21st century, but as a slave on her own plantation! Trapped in the clutches of a devastating war as a servant to her ancestors, she discovers the forbidden secret of her inheritance, while a love lost in the passage of time is rekindled...a love that holds her hostage between the past and the present.