Though famine holds her beloved Ireland in its deadly grip, young, innocent Kitty Rooney is a survivor. An exotic gypsy lass with cascading curls of ebony silk and eyes of brown velvet, Kitty vows that someday, somehow, the riches of the earth will be laid at her feet. Then Patrick O'Reilly walks into her life, his eyes burning hungrily over her body, his lips promising her the world, making a woman of her in one sweet, scorching night.