[1][2][3] Set in what might loosely be described as an alternative Spain, the novel traces a family of painters who, by nature of their Gifts, can influence events around them.

However, one woman per generation is official mistress to the ruling Duke's Heir, so that the family maintains its influence at Court.

The story develops when a particularly Gifted and unscrupulous Grijalva painter finds a way to continue living through successive generations.

As the political and social climate changes, including revolutions in neighboring countries and democratic challenges to the ruling Dukes, this increasingly conservative painter seeks to hold on to the past, and especially his first love, whom he has imprisoned in a painting.

The development in painting styles is used as a metaphor for political changes that mirror western European history, especially in France and Italy from 1500 to (say) 1820.