A brutal rape...A murdered child...An enduring love...And one woman's twenty year quest for revenge...A best-seller when originally published, this historical thriller is about an extraordinary woman who pursues revenge and justice over a twenty year period against a rapist who also intentionally caused the death of her infant child. During the same two whirlwind decades, through wit, her own beauty, sexual cunning, luck, sacrifice, great physical risk and determination, Esther Cable rises to unimagined wealth and prominence amidst the lawless California gold rush, the Comstock silver madness and the building of the transcontinental railroad. All the while she dreams not only of revenge, but a nearly impossible reunion with the husband she left behind out of shame -- but still loves after all these years of separation.