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Athena was always considered to be too intelligent for her own good. Her grandmother would like nothing more than to pull Athena’s nose out of those useless books and marry her off to the first eligible bachelor around. When they arrive in London to fulfill the grandmother’s plan of transforming Athena from a pauper to a princess, they are both in for a surprise: the only man Athena has eyes for is a man she loathes. After she shamelessly offends the Duke, Athena wants nothing more than to repair the damage of their first meeting. But the Duke has already begun his campaign of slander against the ugly ducking. Soon Athena realizes she has blossomed into a swan. Will the belligerent Duke realize her newfound beauty and the burning desire inside him or will he destroy her only chance of marriage.

A typical Michener roman a clef spanning several hundred years of history of the Caribbean region. Starting with a few chapters of the indigenous history, it evolves to follow the fortunes of families from England, Spain, France and Africa as their experiences as plantation owners, imperial administrators and naval officers, slaves and freemen intertwine over the years to the time of publication of the novel (1980s). From a historical perspective, it educates on the role of sugar in the colonization of the various islands such as Jamaica and Haiti and how the legacy of colonization affects the culture and economic health of the current nations. One particularly interesting set of vignettes is devoted to the Caribbean service of the British naval hero Horatio Nelson.