Amsterdam in the 1630s. The painters of the time are busy: the city's inhabitants intend to guarantee their immortality with gold. Sitting for such a portrait is Sophia Sandvoort, beside her elderly husband Cornelis. They are surrounded by objects showing her husband's piety, as well as a tulip. For Cornelis has made money from the speculation on this exotic flower and its bulbs. But as the painter, Jan Van Loos, starts to capture Sophia's likeness on his canvas, so a slow passion begins to burn.
©1999 Deborah Moggach; (P)2000 BBC Audiobooks Ltd