East Texas 1916 In the great mansions of Houston Avenue Howbutker live the towns founding families: Toliver Warwick & Du Mont. Over generations they have settled their differences by exchanging roses: a red rose to ask for forgiveness & a white rose to accept. But when precocious teenager Mary Toliver inherits cotton plantation Somerset from her father Vernon the first seeds of discontent are sown. & it is not the last time Mary will sell her soul for the sake of the family soil. When she declines the proposal of handsome timber magnate Percy Warwick it is a shattering choice that will spell heartbreak for generations to come.