The Sandoval sisters did exactly what they wanted, when they wanted, and with the intensity that they wanted, all while living on a rough frontier on the eve of the Mexican-American War. 

When Alma flees with her young lover to Texas to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man, the sisters are forced apart and their legacy is endangered. Pilar, her 14-year-old tomboy sister, is offered as a replacement bride. What follows is a sensuous courtship and marriage clouded by her husband's former lover, who will stop at nothing, even the use of black magic, to destroy the Sandoval family.

Each sister tells her own story of love and loss—a husband, a friend, a lover, a child—until the secrets of the old blood can guide them together again.