La exotica

It's the late nineteenth century. Born in New Orleans the illegitimate child of two societies - one wealthy the other poor - Clio Dulaine, Dulaine her father's surname, was raised in Paris, where she and her mother moved after the accidental death of her wealthy father, her extended paternal family paying them off to move away forever. Following the death of her mother, Clio, with her faithful and outspoken servants, West Indian Angelique and dwarf Cupidon, by her side, returns to New Orleans to live in the abandoned house of her father. Her plan is to avenge the treatment of her and her mother by her Dulaine New Orleans relations in showing them up by marrying into money for security and respectability, in the process acting somewhat scandalously all in the Dulaine name. To achieve the goal of marriage into wealth, Clio tells the world the lie that she is a Countess. The one person she does attract as a suitor is Colonel Clint Maroon, a Texas cattleman and gambler, who, despite she being attracted to him in return, is not quite the husband for who she was looking. Despite understanding Clio's motivations in he feeling the need to avenge the wrong done to his own parents, Clint is unable to reconcile with Clio and her life, he instead helping her with her goal. That brings Clio and her entourage to Saratoga Springs, where Clint believes he's found the perfect man for her needs, wealthy Bartholomew Van Steed, who she would be able to control and manipulate in he being a proverbial mama's boy. But an event on the Saratoga trunk of the regional railroad may ultimately show Clio what and who she wants in life.