“They were New Orleans’ gen de couleur libre – the copper-skinned half-castes who lived recklessly and loved passionately, trapped in a world between black and white.

Marcel – the young, blue-eyed scholar, sensitive, and longing always for Paris. Marie – his breathtakingly beautiful sister, cursed with the ability to pass for white. Cristophe – novelist and teacher, the idol of all the young gens. Anna Bella – light in skin, African in feature, chosen for the white man.”