Mistress of Paradise on AllMovie

In her first TV-movie appearance, Genevieve Bujold plays Elizabeth, an attractive heiress from the North who becomes the second wife of aristocratic Creole plantation owner Charlie Beaufort (Chad Everett) in the mid-19th century. As the new "Mistress of Paradise," Elizabeth immediately finds herself fending off the amorous advances of neighboring plantation master Buckley (Anthony Andrews). Worse still, the heroine begins to suspect that the official story of the death of the first Mrs. Beaufort may not be entirely true. Brazenly borrowing story elements from both Gone With the Wind and Jane Eyre, the Mississippi-filmed Mistress of Paradise debuted October 4, 1981, on ABC.