When her selfish, flighty sister leaves home to become the wife of a wealthy sugar plantation owner, Alyssa becomes solely responsible for her poor, deranged mother as well as for Thea's bastard son. Viciously raped, then thrown out of the family home, the girl goes on the run, fleeing her cruel rapist.

Alyssa's journey is a perilous one. It will take her far from the Black Country to the wild shores of the Caribbean and put her in the path of evil men determined to despoil the young girl. For the palm-fringed island of Jamaica is home to a pernicious trade: white slavery...