Following the love story of painter Joseph Legare's niece, Isabelle Forest, and novelist Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, Sylvie Chaput carefully and creatively chronicles her picture of Quebec in the 1830s. Chaput writes of the turbulence Quebec endured as her lovers battle the dangers of severe political unrest and a huge cholera epidemic. This novel also recalls the role of art, specifically painting, as a permanent force in a tumultuous world.