The 'Decayed Gentlewoman', Colin and Ginny had called her as children - a disregarded painting badly in need of cleaning, which later vanished.

But the 'Decayed Gentlewoman' re-entered their grown-up lives with a bang. The manner of its reappearance sparked a train of suspicion about the true nature of past events. And now Dr Colin Locke, with his childhood emotions vividly reawakened, finds himself drawn into a maze of theft, legal complexities and murder.