Homeless Sofia Waters arrives at a hospital suffering from exhaustion and severe leg pain. She meets Angela, who works for a charity, and tells her story of being a once famous children's author who lost everything when her family took advantage of her financially. Sofia later meets a dying woman named Avril, who gives her the key to her villa and instructions to find a valuable diamond and have it appraised by a certain person. Sofia sets out to find the diamond appraiser, but discovers that he has been murdered. She meets a man named Jamie Jamieson, who was the appraiser's business partner and knows the identity of the killer. Together they work to bring the killer to justice and expose a nationwide cartel of diamond dealers who buy diamonds from clients at undervalued prices and sell them on the international market at much higher prices. With Jamie's help and connections, the diamond is exhibited in galleries and museums, and the Cradle of the White Lioness, Avril's estate, becomes a place for street children and the homeless. Sofia takes over running the Cradle of the White Lioness and shares her experience with the homeless, young and old. Yana and Timmy are two of the children seeking refuge at Sofia's shelter. Yana was forced into an arranged marriage with her older cousin but managed to escape with Timmy's help. While at the shelter, she becomes embroiled in a string of puzzling dog killings. To help solve the case, Yana joins forces with detective Jack Renna, and over time, the two develop a romantic connection.

In this captivating, suspenseful memoir, white lion conservationist Linda Tucker describes her perilous struggle to protect the sacred white lion from the merciless and mafia-like trophy-hunting industry, armed only with her indomitable spirit and total devotion. Her story begins in 1991 with a heart-stopping misadventure in the Timbavati Reserve of South Africa. Tucker—then a successful advertising executive—and a group of fellow travelers found themselves surrounded by a pride of angry lions. There was no way out, night had fallen, and the battery in their only flashlight was beginning to flicker. Miraculously, a local medicine woman, with two youngsters in tow, passed, trancelike and fearless, through the lions and escorted them all to safety. For Tucker, that life-threatening experience became a life-changing one. She abandoned her career, left Europe, and returned to Timbavati to track down the medicine woman who had saved her: Maria Khosa. Upon seeing Tucker again, Khosa only smiled and said, “What took you so long?” She had been expecting her, and there was so much to do. Under Khosa’s shamanic tutelage, Tucker learned of her sacred destiny: to be the “keeper of the white lions,” believed to be angelic beings sent to Earth to save humanity at a time of crisis. Khosa also prophesized that the queen of the white lions—the embodiment of the mother of Ra, the sun god—would soon be born, on a day and in a place considered holy by Westerners. On December 25, 2000, in the little South Africa town of Bethlehem, a snowy white lion cub, Marah, was born. From the moment of her first meeting with Marah, Tucker’s story immediately takes off into battle, as she dedicates her every waking moment to prying Marah and her siblings from the grips of the trophy-hunting industry. Compellingly written in the intimate style of a journal, Tucker describes with unflinching honesty her fears, doubts, hopes, and dreams, all the while unfolding for us an unforgettable tale of adventure, romance, spirituality, and most of all, justice.