The Descendant

Firenze Barbera possesses two birthrights: the fury of Italian passion and the protection of a wild wolf…

When a wild wolf invades their cabin during a fierce Colorado blizzard of 1916, Maria Barbera fears for the life of her newborn daughter Firenze.

Instead, the she-wolf cleans the infant with gentle licks before departing into the storm– leaving behind a child marked by strange ruby lips and an otherworldly connection that will define her extraordinary life.

Firenze grows up wild and fierce in Colorado’s rugged mountains, running with her wolf companion Blue. 

While other Italian immigrants suffer in poverty, Prohibition has provided the Barberas with an unexpected opportunity– a bootlegging empire that brings both prosperity and danger. But when her father’s violent feuds with rival families end in bloodshed, the Barberas are forced to flee to Brooklyn’s crime-ridden streets, where Firenze battles both her own demons and the harsh realities of city life.

Refusing to be broken by tragedy or her father’s cruelty, Firenze eventually finds her way back to her beloved Colorado mountains. There, she must finally confront the truth about her mysterious nature and find healing in the rugged landscape of her childhood. 

From its supernatural beginning unfolds an epic tale of an Italian immigrant family whose strong, magical women survived starvation, servitude, massacre, and murder to become brides, bootleggers, cowpokes, and Mafia bosses.