This "is a tale of suspense set in Victorian Cornwall, much of it centered in a house that was once a convent where the legend of seven sisters who had strayed from their vows lingers on and has its effect on an ambitious village girl who marries into the local gentry.".
When Kate Collison accompanies her famous artist father--whose ability she shares--to France to paint a miniature of Baron de Centeville, she begins and exciting and dangerous relationship with him in the strife-torn France of the late 19th century.