This is a moving tale of love and loss, set at the outbreak of World War II.It is 1938. Meg Stephens, a young art student from a middle-class North London family, travels to Saint Tropez with a friend in pursuit of art and adventure. Captivated by the colours and scents of Provence, the two girls embark on a painting holiday through which they meet a circle of bohemian artists and writers including the famous Pierre Bonnard.As war approaches, and the storm-clouds gather over Europe, Meg is drawn into the exotic entourage of Madame Leary and Les Cigalettes. Very soon she has fallen deeply and irrevocably in love; with Werner, an Austrian-born intellectual exiled from his homeland for his political views...Many years later, after Meg has died, her daughter Alice discovers a long-lost painting which had belonged to her mother, and which tells the story of this secret wartime love affair.