Mary Vere was a strong-willed servant girl who was determined to become a lady-and to put together the pieces of her clouded past. Changing her name to Monique vaudreuil, the young beauty left her Alabama home for the bustling silver town of Virginia City, Nevada, where she opened an elegant bordello. But even as Monique gained power and prestige, she was haunted by controversy, scandal, and murder. Locked in a brutal struggle with the self-styled king of Virginia City, she found her lifetightly intertwined with the fate of the new state of Nevada-and with that of the one man who could ignite in her a blazing and perfect passion.