"In the port town of La Pointe in Guadeloupe, Reynalda, a pregnant teenager, is rescued from drowning by a local cook who raises her and the daughter she bears. Reynalda had run away from her mother, Nina, and the unsavory Italian jeweler for whom she kept house. The child, Marie-Noelle is scarcely noticed by her mother, who soon leaves for a job in Paris.

It is the harsh and beautiful island of Desirada where Reynalda was born, and where Nina's hermetic mother still lives, which may hold the key to Marie-Noelle's identity and the reason her mother abandoned her. Her journey leads to America and redemption as she pursues an education so that she can invent her own life."--BOOK JACKET.