After her mother’s death in 2005, Anne Summers inherits a portrait of her mother as a child. She finds herself drawn into the story of how the portrait was painted, and soon learns the artist painted another portrait of her mother, this time as the Madonna. In a gripping narrative that is part art history, part detective story and part meditation on the relations between mothers and daughters, Anne’s search for the Madonna painting, its forgotten artist Constance Stokes and the mysterious Russian migr collector who bought both paintings takes her down unexpected paths. Along the way Anne must face the truth of the relationship she had with her mother…