In New Orleans - the city of genteel old houses covered in Spanish moss, of seductive night life, of Creole, voodoo and jazz - two women separated by time and tragedy will find each other at last. Amanda, orphaned as a child and suffering the loss of her beloved grandmother, has left Sydney in search of a family she never knew. Ruby, constrained by the expectations of society and class, is carrying a lifetime of secrets. Amanda's arrival sparks revelations long buried: a double life, a forbidden love, and a loss that cannot be forgotten. Southern Ruby is a sweeping story of love, passion, family and honour. Alternating in time between the 1950s and the eve of Hurricane Katrina, it is also a tribute to a city heady with music, drama, history and superstition, which has borne the tumults of race and class and the fury of nature, but has never given up hope.