Magical powers inhabit the land to which Malfred Signal retires – freed at last of her responsibilities to a dying mother and the generations of young ladies who have learned perfect drawing techniques in her classes. Her first night in the idyllic island retreat that is to be her new home is one of terror: a storm is raging, an intruder pounding on her door, and calls to the police, the priest and the doctor over her still-unconnected telephone bring no result. This is the state of siege, painted in pigments of dark and light, the brush dipped in themes of selfhood and loneliness, of death and its counterpart, the need to survive, to live.