Juliet was nearly eighteen. Almost a woman. She was very rich. Her mother and half-sister were slim and attractive, but Juliet was rather plump. Her mother's attempts to find her a husband had failed, and Juliet was miserable.

Juliet lived in her own private world of music, art, and dreams... a world she was unable to share with anyone. Then one night at a concert, she caught the intense, probing gaze of the dark-eyed young stranger seated next to her. No man had ever looked at her like that. The woman inside Juliet stirred for the first time. She smiled back.

And so it began. Romero, the young Italian shared her love of music. But she did not know then the shocking and violent drama that lay in wait for her. Or that from the moment of their first embrace she had moved into a world from which there was no return.