Lou Durand was a gentleman. A prosperous businessman. At 37, he was about to marry a woman with whom he'd shared a proper, then passionate, courtship by mail.

The woman who arrived on the boat from St. Louis to New Orleans was young, golden, and beautiful - a far cry from the photo Durand clutched nrevously in his hands. But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered once Durand saw that face. Even after he learned what had happened to the real Julia...even after the mysterious dreamgirl had done everything to him - from the crass to the crude to the criminal - Durand was under her spell...