Leanna Cargill is from up north - a damnyankee, as Southern folk say. But she's a steel magnolia if there ever was one- and she is determined to succeed at her new investigative job down south. All the more since a nasty divorce left her responsible for her little girl.

Jackson Fontaine maybe a Southern gentleman, but he is also a wheeler-dealer businessman and as strong willed as they come. He is not about to let his sugar plantation and refinery go under - he has a little girl to care for, too - because of any operational irregularities that Leanna Cargill may find.

Despite that, they like each other a lot. And when circumstances force Leanna to live at Bellefountaine, they both see how easily the four of them - Leanna and Jackson and their two girls - could make the arrangemnt a permanent one...