What if the person you love most in the world is trying to destroy you?

In the 1970s, when Maria Jordan, daughter of a pastor in Ohio, moves to Atlanta, known as the Black Mecca, all her dreams look like they're coming true. Statuesque, sporting the popular Afro and tailored mini-skirts of that era, the college grad is making mega-money in a corporate job. She's ready to settle down, find a suitable husband, and begin a family, but life can be lonely for a single woman in a new town.

Then Mark Towns enters her life. A tall, handsome, popular man who drives a red sports car, yet intelligently debates the ills of society and how to overcome the struggle of downtrodden blacks, Mark seems like the missing piece in Maria's dreams. But, suddenly after a year of dating, he becomes the source of her nightmares.

Thus begins a cycle of abuse and heartbreak that plows headfirst into a love-and-death journey which keeps you wondering which explosion is coming first: physical and financial ruin, or an epic escape from the forces that keep Maria tied to Mark. This tragic secret story, that is still being played out in thousands of homes today, explores one woman's experience of what it's really like when you wanna go, but also wanna stay.