This is a gripping story with provocative themes.  It is set in New York, 1940.  The country is teetering on the brink of war.  A new art movement called Abstract Expressionism is burgeoning.  European refugees are seeking asylum from rising fascism.  Amid political turmoil, apromising career and a love affair are interrupted when a brilliant young artist banishes . . . and today, seventy years later, another struggling artist, her great-niece, is piecing together the truth about her disappearance--and so much more.