When a young priest is called to the home of wealthy widow, Kate Danville, he hardly expects a tale of betrayal, lost love, and pain. Yet as she begs to be set free from regret, her story unfolds-and it''s even more scandalous than the tabloids have guessed. Kate was married to Stephen Danville, an up-and-coming Manhattan attorney; but as the priest soon discovers, Stephen was hardly the love of Kate''s life. At the age of seventeen, she met thirty-two-year-old Lutheran pastor, Richard Northington. He was a married man, serving at the church of her youth-off limits to young Kate. But nothing can stop the passion of true love. The two embark on a sixty-year affair, but it feels more like a prison of secrecy. The only tie that binds them is Richard''s gift of a ruby ring. When Kate marries Stephen, she thinks there may be hope for a peaceful-even if not entirely honest-future. There is light on the horizon as Stephen and Kate settle into married life. Yet Kate''s idyllic lifestyle unravels as her carefully hidden secrets are exposed by blackmail that threatens her husband''s political future and endangers the lives of her children. Kate must battle her puritanical upbringing against her vibrant personality to discover how far she will go for love . . . and which of God''s laws she will break in the process.