The saga begins in 1789 France, with the flames of revolution threatening to burn away the effete aristocracy that has turned her into such an unhappy country. Lucien Bouchard, second son of a nobleman, is a man of vision and courage. Denied title and inheritance by the birthright laws, he is determined to build for himself a magnificent home, somewhere, perhaps across the sea in a new land. The land is called Alabama, and there Lucien plants the first seeds of cotton and the first bricks of his magnificent chateau.