When Melbourne lawyer Nathan Smithson takes on the case of mad, wealthy Edward Fonceca’s inheritance trial against his ruthless brother in 1901, he must unearth long-buried family secrets to have any chance of winning.
Brazil, 1852: Francois, the Count de Castelnau and French consul to Bahia, falls dangerously I’ll on a naturalist expedition and is delivered by Tupismto the Fonceca household. Carolina Fonceca is sixteen years old and longing to leave the confines of her family’s remote Brazilian sugar plantation. With a head full of Balzac and dreams of Parisian life, she is instantly beguiled by the middle aged Frenchman. What Caroline doesn’t know is that Francois has a wife and son back in France. Desperate for a new life, she makes a decision that will haunt her forever.
