Anna and Bartolome deMelilla manage Cathay Steamboats and are on the forefront of the industrial revolution. In 1825 their steamboats ply the vast Mississippi River Valley and they have begun to invest in a new form of land transportation - railroads - when they are attacked by ruthless men determined to take everything they have accomplished. Vengeful Voodoo spirits recruit the famous priestess, Madam Barbeaux, to intervene, manipulating events to serve their own ends, placing Anna and Bartolome in even greater danger. Bartolome is pursued through the wilderness, isolated from his family and friends in New Orleans. In his absence, survival of their business and their family depends upon Anna. Her courage, intellect and daring are all that stand between the powerful East India Company and her family. Anna must fight for her family, husband, children, and her life. When help does come, it is sent from the unseen, spiritual world and conveyed by Anna's unborn child. The first novel of the deMelilla Chronicles, El Tigre de Nueva Orleans, the second, Incident at Blood River and Anna are stories of 18th and 19th Century Canary Islander settlers in Louisiana and their struggle for survival."