The year is 1929, and newlyweds George and Serena Pemberton travel from Boston to the North Carolina mountains where they plan to create a timber empire.

Mother and child begin a struggle for their lives, and when Serena suspects George is protecting his illegitimate family, the Pembertons' intense, passionate marriage starts to unravel.

In an epilogue set in 1975, an elderly Rachel Harmon reads a Life Magazine interview with Serena, who has prospered as a lumber baroness in Brazil, in a Seattle hospital.

[2] Greed, corruption, murder, illegitimacy, obsession, childbirth, timber baron, remote mountain life, 1920s, Gender roles, jealousy, lawlessness, mental illness, desperation.

Major adaptations from the book: Title character is given a deep background in timber business; Greek chorus of loggers omitted; film story not told from Serena's point of view.