Juliette Reiss-Marston's life seems like a fairytale come true. Her college sweetheart, William Fourier, just announced their engagement to marry! Even with the good news, Juliette's suspicions mount about their future together when an overseas letter arrives from a mysterious cousin she hadn't met.
In his letter, Claude Freedman Esq., confides that Juliette's recent gift of a dowry is from her 4th great-grandfather and nobleman, Capt. Françoise J. Reiss III: A man with a nefarious past and a memoir, Children of the Alliance. Confused, Juliette confronts her mother, Adrian Reiss-Marston, who insists the Freedman's are 'impostors' and the memoir is a 'literary forgery.' Defying her mother's wish to forget about their family's notorious past, Juliette sojourns to St. Augustine, Florida, to meet Mr. Freedman, and to pick up her ancestor's memoir.
However, while visiting the "Land of Flowers," Juliette discovers the truth about her ancestors and fears she opened Pandora's Box, surmising the descendants of the captain and his second wife, Selina Freedman, the heir of a freed Senegalese slave, may be the rightful owners of her dowry.
Realizing that knowing the truth may not always mend broken hearts, but can turn heads, Juliette, returns to Paris, France, and hires a team of forensic scientists to investigate her heirloom dowry: The decoratively carved ebony chest of rare gemstones. Shocked by the team's discovery and with INTERPOL on her tail, Juliette calls upon her trusted friends to help her hide the rare gemstones until she can clear her family name...
