At sixteen, Therese Laveau Conghalach first tasted the harsh Celtic magic of the Conghalachs while giving birth to her daughter Maybellline in a pharmacy deep in New Orleans after being rejected by a hospital as not ready to be admitted. Prior to this, she was taught hoodoo by her Mambo Grandmere Alice. As the two lifestyles clash in her frail body, Therese struggles to leave the hoodoo magic of the Laveaus who want to use her for evil purposes, and escape to the unknown Conghalachs who had fled their own terrors for the pure lands of Wyoming from the projections of World War II Berlin. Sometimes the meshing of the two bloodlines is wonderful: sometimes nothing but tragedy can occur in this, the first book of "The Conghalach Witches."