A blending of fiction with history, the story begins in the Italian Renaissance with a girl named Giulietta, the daughter of a little-known artist who defies convention by apprenticing her. She is paid to spy on Michelangelo as he works on his sculpture of David. Hidden in his studio, she alternates between wanting the artist and wanting to be the artist.

The narrative jumps forward to 1918, with the story of Romy March, a descendant of Giulietta, whose artistic aspirations alienate her from her wealthy family. She falls in love with Augustine Marks, a photographer. Inclination and necessity pushes them toward "outsider lives". They journey from place to place -- Hollywood of the silent films, Harlem during its renaissance, Paris at the end of the 20s, World War II London -- separately and together, until they realize in Beat Generation San Francisco that only love brings them back again and again.

Written in elegant and spellbinding prose, this love story and novel of ideas is an homage to passion and dreams.

"A rare pleasure". -- Seattle Times