Maximilienne Carpentier is an elusive and enigmatic figure. As fascinating as the island she lives on, this guileless and emotionally vulnerable woman is betrayed by her lover and left for dead by her family, yet through all these conflicts she still finds the courage to oppose-and the heart to forgive-those who have threatened her. Her cousin Emilie, however, is cut from different cloth, and her subsequent situation is as unwelcome as it is challenging. Cared for by strangers after being shipwrecked, she must find her way back to her island legacy, not only to bury the past, but also provide for the future. What she meets along the way, however, is an emotional storm far outweighing the hurricane that destroyed her ship, and as the revelations about her inmost self rise up to confront her, Emilie is hard-pressed to find the closure she seeks. As related in their diaries, the stories these women tell of their passionate love and unwilling retribution are both poignant and frank, and make remarkable reading.