The vivid hues in the painting captured her attention. Deep blue and green water seemed to move as if a breeze blew across it. She felt giddy and stepped closer. The air around her turned cold. A picture formed in her mind of the river flowing through a city, reflecting buildings in the waters below. That night the river from the painting invaded her dreams. She could feel the breeze. Lavender shadows lapped ever closer to her face. She awoke with a start.

Vermont artist Gina Martin had always been boringly rational but when she encounters an 18th century artist's painting at the Louvre she is drawn to Périgueux, the artist's home in southwestern France. There she finds herself tangled in a web with the artist, whose life eerily matches her own and the owner of the painting—a handsome French art gallery curator. Recurring dreams of murky shadows and death threaten her sanity and her life.