Book excerpt: Banished for promiscuity, Tieta returns to the seaside village of Agreste after twenty-six years. Thinking she is now a rich, respectable widow, her mercenary family welcomes her with open arms. But Tieta is forced to reveal her true identity in order to save the town's beautiful beaches from ugly development. For the only way she can stop the factory is to call upon her close connections in Sao Paulo's highest political and financial circles--as only the Madam of the city's ritziest bordello can.