Philosopher and amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is about to find her Edinburgh home life profoundly altered by the arrival of her baby. But this event is not universally welcomed: Cat, her niece, has reasons for not feeling warmly disposed towards the new arrival. Isabel is nevertheless, as her profession dictates, philosophical about such difficulties. But it is her professional curiosity that leads her into the investigation of a strange affair involving a painter who is there, and then not there, and there again. Who painted what, and when? These are exactly the questions which Isabel Dalhousie excels at answering -- sometimes.