A compelling story of a woman's struggle for her art – and for love.Born amid the violence of the Paris Commune, smuggled out of France and raised in the Blue Mountains, Marie Desmoulins becomes one of the great artists of the twentieth century.Overcoming the restrictions to which women were subject during her youth, Marie moves to Sydney, then travels to the Paris of the 1920s, Kashmir in the days of the Raj and, finally, home again to Australia.Along the way, she has relationships with a wide variety of people: Eugénie, willing to exchange her children for the financial security that ultimately eludes her; Aline, who abandons her art for luxury; Martha, whose disfigured body could not conceal her generous spirit; Katie, model, close friend and confidante; Neil, whom she marries; and finally, Mark, destined to become the most significant man in her life.One of Australia's finest authors brings us a profoundly moving account of one woman's creative life and the true price of artistic genius.