When Reine Baldwin meets a charming journalist during a freak blizzard, she has no idea her carefully crafted life is about to fall apart. But a break-in to her office, a flood in her classroom, and the discovery of a lost portrait lead the reclusive art historian back to where everything started hundreds of years earlier. Returning to Venice on the eve of Carnevale makes Reine face a past she's inexplicably forgotten, including a man who - just like her - should be long dead. Suddenly, the young woman has the chance to trade her quirky sock collection, musty libraries, and an ordinary life with any mortal she'd surely outlive for the man who's apparently loved her for half a millennium. The choice should be easy, until Reine starts to remember things others wish to remain buried.