Alene Lafitte is an art history student at Tulane spending her summer in between freshman and sophomore year working at a rowdy bar in New Orlean's French Quarter. Her summer drastically changes when she unexpectedly meets a handsome, mysterious young man named Perrin. Her attraction to him baffles her; it's almost as if she knows him from another time or place. As she pieces together details about Perrin's life, she becomes aware that he's the ghost of a Civil War soldier who has developed an obsession with her. Perrin has plans for Alene, and while she is scared to death of getting too involved in his world, she is also uncontrollably drawn to him.