When Trayten disappears from Dorset in 1901, Katherine devotes the next eight years to finding him.
She never imagined she would find him like this: confined to a wheelchair on the island of Alderney. Now, the brilliant painter who once loved her is a bitter recluse with no recollection of their turbulent past.

Posing as a psychologist and concealing her connection to him, Katherine determines to restore his memory and solve the mystery of the event that resulted in her husband's brutal death and Trayten's disappearance. She must contend with Trayten's resistance to recovery and the opposition of Marian, the possessive caretaker who is unwilling to let him go.

Alternately, the reader is transported back to Hampshire in 1900, where Trayten is a cynical, impoverished artist and Katherine is a privileged, rebellious debutante. Their whirlwind love affair is threatened by the perils of poverty and Reuben, the proper husband imposed by Katherine's father. Torn between her bohemian ideals and the securities of wealth, Katherine embarks on a journey of destruction, propelling them all toward calamity.

Will Katherine bring Trayten's memory back and find absolution for the mistakes that caused their suffering?

Against all obstacles she will try, clinging to the belief that love, like the spring, will unfailingly conquer even the coldest winter.