Lettie Mason, a proper yet headstrong Boston schoolteacher, journeyed to a small Louisiana town after the Civil War to expose the wretched rogue who'd killed her brother. The man was known as Thorn--a man with a reputation for both murder and mercy. She was sure he had killed her brother, but she learned that he also helped save the homes and lives of many townspeople. How could she reconcile these two different images of the same man--and how could she accept the overwhelming desire, the thrilling passion, and the reckless abandon he aroused deep within her?