During wartime, three soldiers rape 16-year old Charlotte in the Louisiana woods. Years later, a friend sends Charlotte to the House of Gentle Men, where damaged women are tended to by men who want to atone for their past crimes. Here, Charlotte falls in love with a Gentle Man, who once joined two comrades to rape a teenage girl in the Louisiana woods.

In a year of war, sixteen-year-old Charlotte sets off on a mission of love in the backwoods of Louisiana, only to be violated by three soldiers in a lonely section of the forest. Charlotte's young life is destroyed, but another life is growing inside her. Years later, in peacetime, Charlotte comes to House of Gentle Men, a mysterious sanctuary where sad, damaged women are administered to by haunted men wishing to atone for their past crimes. Here, Charolotte falls in love with one of the Gentle Men, a tormented young soldier with a terrible secret of his own.

An artistic triumph of the highest order, this debut is a transcendent tale of salvation that celebrates the strength of the heart.