Cole Montgomery has it all...success, women, and a brilliant future as a physician in Birmingham, Alabama. Yet he is restless and incomplete. Seeking the happiness that eludes him, he returns to his tiny hometown of Millville to work in the cotton mill and search for the father he never knew, the man who caused him to be born a bastard. Amelia Mansfield has an agenda. After graduating with an advanced business degree in Philadelphia, she seeks to fulfill her empty life by returning to Millville. Her goal is to wrestle control of her family's mill empire from the hands of her ruthless father, proving once and for all that a woman can be more than just a pretty face. From the moment of their first meeting, Cole and Amelia seem star-crossed. Their attraction is immediate and passionate, and in one magic summer their relationship deepens to love until Fate intervenes. A bitter corporate struggle and long-buried secrets erupt in greed, jealousy, and finally flames as one man's shameful past conspires to pull the lovers apart for all time.