At the age of twenty, Claire Wyndham went out to the lovely island of Santa Catarina. She was prepared to be enchanted by the beautiful island - but she was very far from prepared for the overwhelming attraction of the forceful Portuguese aristocrat, the Conde Manuel de Castro. Claire could not avoid being thrown constantly into his company, but from the beginning there was antagonism between the charming and imperious Conde and the young and sensitive English girl. Manuel was polite, devastating - but clearly uninterested in Claire as a woman. How, after all, could he be otherwise when the beautiful singer Francesca Alvares was so obviously suited to him in every way?