The year is 1998. This story is about three friends: Elizabeth, a Cajun from the swamps; Emma, an Uptown Jew; and Marianne, a Mississippi girl.

These ladies will have a year that will change their lives. They will meet the men who love them and the men who will break their hearts. It will be a time of love and friendship, trials and tribulations, tragedy and murder.

But it is also about a fourth lady, one that is known by many names. Isle d'Orleans. The Paris of the Americas. Queen City of the South. The City that Care Forgot. Birthplace of Jazz. The Big Easy. Crescent City. New Orleans—what she was, and what she may be again.