In 1728, beautiful, resourceful Madeleine Boucher is one of the last group of poor young girls given modest dowries in trunks, or casquettes, by the French government-then shipped off to America, where they are intended as wives for the French settlers in the Louisiana Territory. Despite a series of romantic travails, Madeleine remains fiercely dedicated to finding true passion and securing the promise of her new adopted land, free from the prejudices of the past.

The story of Madeleine and the other casquette girls is the story of New Orleans itself. Like the city, they struggled through Indians, hurricanes, fires, and floods. Like the city, they absorbed the shocks and assimilated the dominance of other cultures, while remaining steadfastly French.

Madeleine's brutal but enlightening journey vividly brings back to life a forgotten era, a history, a people-and the nation they came to call their own.

Terri Cheney, New York Times bestselling author of Manic and Modern Madness