Maia D'Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, a secluded chateau on the shores of Lake Geneva, when they are told that their beloved father - the elusive billionaire they call Pa Salt - has died. She and her sisters were adopted as babies, each from a different, far-flung corner of the globe. Maia is handed a letter which holds a clue to her past, and it takes her to a beautiful, crumbling villa under Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro. There, she meets an old woman, who refuses to speak to her but who Maia believes may hold the key to her family's story. Eighty years earlier, in 1927, Izabela Bonifacio's father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into aristocracy. On her eighteenth birthday, Bel is launched into Rio de Janeiro's high society, and catches the eye of the city's wealthiest aristocrat, Gustavo Aires Cabral. Meanwhile architect Heitor da Silva Costa is planning a new statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Bel - passionate and longing to see the world - convinces her father to allow her to accompany them before she is married. There, at the artist's atelier and in the heady, vibrant Paris cafes, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again. In this sweeping epic of love and loss - the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven books - Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.