The true story of an American college student abroad in picturesque San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, as she unknowingly accepts a proposal of marriage during a midnight serenade. Complications arise when two years later her "fiance" is murdered. Far from stopping Sonette, the ties of the presumed future marriage now forever bind her to Abelardo's family. The story of their romance is revealed in rich detail as she returns to San Miguel to take her place in the family home, one of the few Great Houses still occupied since 1640, as the "widow" of Abelardo. Embraced by Abelardo's only remaining sister as a sister-in-law, Sonette is on hand during the drama of mysterious digging which is undermining the house, presumably in a search for gold hidden under the stables centuries ago. Suspected and gradually confirmed, the mid-night excavations cause a portion of the upper stories to collapse, the one witness willing to testify is found mysteriously dead in his apartment across the street, and the family is menaced and threatened. Meanwhile Sonette describes the joys of becoming a part of the daily life of a wealthy and prestigious family's routines as well as their adventures, using her painter's eye to portray in words of colorful detail all who dwell in, or enter, "The Great House of Raul Rodriguez." She shares her blunders and angers as well as her delights with realistic honesty as, however loved and accepted by the family, she is still a stranger in a strange land."