Set against the backdrop of Paris in 1883, this is the story of two French women, Fleur and Babette, and how their lives diverge when the artist they both model for is found dead. Fleur's is a life lived on the fringes of the Impressionist movement in a world of color and music. Babette is not so lucky, and following the death of the artist, her life begins to quickly unravel on the streets of France. This is a novel of the senses in which memory, love, and loss are explored and examined, and where it appears the ties which hold us together can also pull us apart.