In the days before the Civil War in the old French Quarter of New Orleans there lived the GENS DE COULEUR,the Free People of Colour, a fierce and proud people,descended from slaves and their French and Spanish owners,neither Black nor White,but caught between the two - free and yet not free. Among them is Michael,the mesmeric copper-skinned youth,mercurial,attractive,wild:an artist in the making,he dreams of Paris,and the lure of a brand new art, Daguerreotype. His gentle sister Marie longs for love and marriage in a world ready to sell her charms to the highest bidder. And there is Anita Bella,the beautiful young courtesan;and Dolly Rose, the splendid madame;and Christophe,the brilliant young teacher who has returned from Paris with dangerous ideas. The author of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE has written a novel as exotic,exciting,colourful and sensuous as the French Quarter itself.