Daughters are a rarity in the Nicholas family, born only once or twice a century. When a daughter is born, her life is tied to an ancestral ruby necklace, bequeathed to the young woman on her twenty-first birthday.

The necklace is remarkable, a twenty-carat tear-shaped ruby offset by smaller rubies and diamonds. Its wealth is beyond value, but tradition claims the necklace offers much more. She who wears the ruby, family legend tells, will have a prosperous and happy life.

Then twin girls are born into the Nicholas family, and tradition crumbles. By right, Izabella, as the eldest, should wear the ruby, but what of her sister Adella? To ignore the birth of a daughter goes against centuries of family history.

As the girls grow, Izabella becomes proud and haughty, confident in her inheritance and stunning good looks. Adella is quieter, more loving, and plainer than her sister. She's quite willing to live without the pomp and circumstance the ruby necklace brings, an attitude Izabella cannot grasp and finds deeply suspicious.

Two sisters, one unbreakable family tradition-what follows will change the Nicholas family forever, for good or ill.