Bücher veröffentlicht von HARPERCOLLINS

ANew York TimesBestsellerThe reveredNew York Timesbestselling author returns with a novel set in 1960s Baltimore that combines modern psychological insights with elements of classic noir, about a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman.In 1966, Baltimore is a city of secrets that everyone seems to knoweveryone, that is, except Madeline Maddie Schwartz. Last year, she was a happy, even pampered housewife. This year, shes bolted from her marriage of almost twenty years, determined to make good on her youthful ambitions to live a passionate, meaningful life.Maddie wants to matter, to leave her mark on a swiftly changing world. Drawing on her own secrets, she helps Baltimore police find a murdered girlassistance that leads to a job at the citys afternoon newspaper, theStar.Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: Cleo Sherwood, a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake.If Cleo were white, every reporter in Baltimore would be clamoring to tell her story. Instead, her mysterious death receives only cursory mention in the daily newspapers, and no one cares when Maddie starts poking around in a young Black woman's lifeexcept for Cleo's ghost, who is determined to keep her secrets and her dignity. Cleo scolds the ambitious Maddie:You're interested in my death, not my life. They're not the same thing. Maddies investigation brings her into contact with people that used to be on the periphery of her lifea jewelry store clerk, a waitress, a rising star on the Baltimore Orioles, a patrol cop, a hardened female reporter, a lonely man in a movie theater. But for all her ambition and drive, Maddie often fails to see the people right in front of her. Her inability to look beyond her own needs will lead to tragedy and turmoil for all sorts of peopleincludingFerdie, the man who shares her bed, a police officer who is risking far more than Maddie can understand.

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities.And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one. Ugly duckling turned swan? Abducted by handsome highwayman? Rescued from drudgery by charming prince?No, no, and . . . Heh.Now Izzys given up yearning for romance. Shell settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman whos never even been kissed?This one.

A French pastry chef providers the tools and instruction you need to master the art of classic French bread and dough-based baked goods with this stunning cookbook featuring 100 recipes, infographics, 500 handy step-by-step photos, and an illustrated glossary.In this gorgeous bread bible, chef Rodolphe Landemaine simplifies the art of French baking as he teaches home cooks how to create a range of scrumptious French breads, including baguettes, brioche Parisienne, croissants, chestnut bread, petits gateaux, financers, and chouquettes. He provides clear, step-by-step instructions beginning with fundamental ingredients (flour, yeast, sourdough starter), recipes for basic doughs (bread dough, brioche dough, croissant dough), and fillings (pastry cream, almond cream, compote). He then teaches you the techniques such as kneading, fermentation, and shaping that are the heart of French baking.Landemaine follows these hands-on instructions with sixty recipes. He explains how preparation adds texture and flavor to each recipe, breaks down the techniques involved in its creation, and includes helpful photos for every step, as well as one large full-page photo of the finished bread. French Bread at Home also contains a helpful illustrated glossary that provides detailed directions to help you perfect your baking skills, from stocking key utensils to filling and decorating pastries to washes and methods for working with dough. The directions are accompanied by helpful how-to photos.A sophisticated, comprehensive, and accessible visual cookbook, French Bread at Home is your essential guide to making and enjoying mouthwatering French baked goods in your own kitchen.

In this dazzling collection of short fiction, the National Book Award Finalist and New York Times bestselling author of The History of Loveone of Americas most important novelists and an international literary sensation (New York Times)explores what it means to be in a couple, and to be a man and a woman in that perplexing relationship and beyond.In one of her strongest works of fiction yet, Nicole Krauss plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.The way these stories mirror one other and resonate is beautiful, with a balance so finely tuned that the book almost feels like a novel. Echoes ring through stages of life: aging parents and new-born babies; young womens coming of age and the newfound, somewhat bewildering sexual power that accompanies it; generational gaps and unexpected deliveries of strange new leases on life; mystery and wonder at a life lived or a future waiting to unfold. To Be a Man illuminates with a fierce, unwavering light the forces driving human existence: sex, power, violence, passion, self-discovery, growing older. Profound, poignant, and brilliant, Krausss stories are at once startling and deeply moving, but always revealing of all-too-human weakness and strength.

Finalist for the Pulitzer PrizeNew York TimesBestseller |A Read with JennaTodayShow Book Club Pick |ANew York Times Book ReviewNotable Book |TIMEMagazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2019Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR,TheWashington Post;O: The Oprah Magazine,Real Simple,Good Housekeeping, Vogue,Refinery29, andBuzzfeedAnn Patchett, the #1New York Timesbestselling author ofCommonwealth,delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go.The Dutch Houseis the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures. Set over the course of five decades,The Dutch Houseis a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

New York Times BestsellerThe sequel to the #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon Strange Planet, featuring more hilarious and poignant adventures from the fascinating inhabitants of Nathan W. Pyle''s colorful world.In this eagerly awaited sequel, Nathan takes us back to his charming and instantly recognizable planet colored in bright pinks, blues, greens, and purples, providing more escapades, jokes, and p h r a s e s.Nathan mixes his most popular Instagram comics with more than thirty original works created exclusively for this second volume to explore four major topics: traditions, nature, emotions, and knowledge. He inducts new and longtime fans into a strangely familiar world and its culture, from “cohesion” (marriage) to “mild poison” (alcohol) to the full lyrics to “The Small Eight-Legged Creature” (sung to the tune of The Itsy-Bitsy Spider).Bright, colorful, and whimsical—yet charmingly familiar—Stranger Planet is out-of-this-world fun.

When Isabel Allendes daughter, Paula, became gravely ill and fell into a coma, the author began to write the story of her family for her unconscious child. In the telling, bizarre ancestors appear before our eyes; we hear both delightful and bitter childhood memories, amazing anecdotes of youthful years, and the most intimate secrets passed along in whispers. With Paula, Allende has written a powerful autobiography whose straightforward acceptance of the magical and spiritual worlds will remind readers of her first book, The House of the Spirits.

Allende is a master storyteller at the peak of her powers. Los Angeles Times From the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende (Ins of My Soul, The House of the Spirits, Portrait in Sepia) tells the story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny.

A passionate tale of love, freedom, and conquest from the New York Times bestselling author of The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende. Born into a poor family in Spain, Ins Surez, finds herself condemned to a lifeof poverty without opportunity as a lowly seamstress. But it's the sixteenth century, the beginning ofthe Spanishconquest of the Americas. Struck by the samerestless hope and opportunism,Insuses her shiftless husband's disappearance to Peru as an excuse to embark on her own adventure.After learning of her husband's death in battle, she meets the fiery war hero, Pedro de Valdivia and begins a love that not only changes her life but the course of history. Based on the real historical events that founded Chile, Allende takes us on a whirlwind adventure of love and loss seen through the eyes of a daring, complicated womanwho fought for freedom.

In The Infinite Plan, critically acclaimed, bestselling author Isabel Allende weaves a vivid and engrossing tale of one mans search for love and his struggle to come to terms with a childhood of poverty and neglect. It is the story of Gregory Reeves and his hard journey from L.A.s Hispanic barrio to the killing fields of Vietnam to the frenetic world of a San Francisco lawyer. Along the way, he loses himself in an illusory and wrongheaded quest, and only by circling back to his roots can he find what he is missing and what he wants more than anything in life.

This vivid account of the Wall and all that it meant reminds us that symbolism can be double-edged, as a potent emblem of isolation and repression became, in its destruction, an even more powerful totem of freedom.The Atlantic MonthlyOn the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity.In the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials, and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall's rise and fall.

The explosive finale to the New York Times and USA Today bestselling Shatter Me series.Juliette Ferrars.Ella Sommers. Which is the truth and which is the lie? Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrongbetween Ella and Julietteblur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But she may not get to choose what side she fights on.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom beloved astrologer Chani Nicholas comes an essential guide for radical self-acceptance.Your weekly horoscope is merely one crumb of astrologys cake. In her first bookYou Were Born For This, Chani shows how your birth charta snapshot of the sky at the moment you took your first breathreveals your unique talents, challenges, and opportunities. Fortified with this knowledge, you can live out the life you were born to. Marrying the historic traditions of astrology with a modern approach,You Were Born for Thisexplains the key components of your birth chart in an easy to use, choose your own adventure style. With journal prompts, reflection questions, and affirmations personal to your astrological makeup, this book guides you along the pathyour chart has laid out for you.Chani makes the wisdom of your birth chart accessible with three foundational keys:The First Key: Your Sun (Your Lifes Purpose)The Second Key: Your Moon (Your Physical and Emotional Needs)The Third Key: Your Ascendant and Its Ruler (Your Motivation for Life and the Steersperson of Your Ship)Astrology is not therapy, but it is therapeutic.In a world in which we are taught to look outside of ourselves for validation,You Were Born for Thisbrings us inward to commit to ourselves and our lifes purpose.

This book isa treasurea touching story of friendship, loss, and finding beauty in the everyday, with characters who stay with you long after youve turned the final page. I absolutely loved it.R. J. Palacio, New York Times bestselling author of WonderLaurel Snyder, author of Orphan Island, returns with another unforgettable story of the moments in which we find out who we are, and the life-altering friendships that show us what we can be.The school year is over, and it is summer in Atlanta. The sky is blue, the sun is blazing, and the days brim with possibility. But Leah feels. . . lost. She has been this way since one terrible afternoon a year ago, when everything changed. Since that day, her parents have become distant, her friends have fallen away, and Leahs been adrift and alone.Then she meets Jasper, a girl unlike anyone she has ever known. Theres something mysterious about Jasper, almost magical. And Jasper, Leah discovers, is also lost. Together, the two girls carve out a place for themselves, a hideaway in the overgrown spaces of Atlanta, away from their parents and their hardships, somewhere only they can find.But as the days of this magical June start to draw to a close, and the darker realities of their lives intrude once more, Leah and Jasper have to decide how real their friendship is, and whether it can be enough to save them both.

Reunited once more, young Alexander Cold and his best friend, Nadia, embark upon a new adventure, following Alexs frighteningly fearless journalist grandmother Kate to a forbidden kingdom hidden away in the frosty peaks of the Himalayas. They seek the fabled Golden Dragona sacred statue and priceless oracle coveted by a greedy and powerful outsider. To prevent the desecration of the holy relic, they will need the help of a sage Buddhist monk, his young royal disciple, and a fierce tribe of Yeti warriors. But even the mystical power of their totemic animal spirits may not be enough to save the teenagers and this remote world from the destructive encroachment of civilization.Kingdom of the Golden Dragon is the second book in a remarkable trilogy by internationally acclaimed author Isabel Allende.

The fourteenth novel featuring Leaphorn and Chee by New York Times bestselling author Tony Hillerman, now reissued in the Premium Plus format.Three men raid the gambling casino run by the Ute nation and then disappear into the maze of canyons on the Utah-Arizona border. When the FBI, with its helicopters and high-tech equipment, focuses on a wounded deputy sheriff as a possible suspect, Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee and his longtime colleague, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, launch an investigation of their own. Chee sees a dangerous flaw in the federal theory; Leaphorn sees intriguing connections to the exploits of a legendary Ute bandit-hero. And together, they find themselves caught up in the most perplexingand deadlycriminal manhunt of their lives.

Founder of popular website Get Your Shit Together blends personal story and must-have advice in the ultimate guide to getting your affairs in order—from wills and advance directives to insurance, finances, and relationships—before the unthinkable happens.On July 17, 2009, Chanel Reynolds’ husband, José, was struck by a car while cycling near their home in Seattle. In the wake of her husband’s untimely death, Reynolds quickly realized that she was completely unprepared for what came next. What was the password to his phone? Did they sign their wills? How much insurance did they have? Could she afford the house? And what the hell was probate anyway? Simply put, when life went sideways she didn’t have her shit together.As it turns out, most of us don’t either. We’re too busy, in denial, overwhelmed by too much information, uncertain where to start, or just uncomfortable having those difficult conversations. Reynolds learned the hard way that hoping for the best is not a plan, but you don’t have to. Drawing on her first-hand experience, expert advice, and the unparalleled resources she’s compiled for her celebrated website, Reynolds lends a human voice to a warren of checklists and forms and emotional confusion, showing readers how to:Create a will and living willUpdate (or finally get) the right life insurance policyStart or grow an emergency fundMake a watertight emergency planKeep secure, up-to-date records of personal informationAuthoritative yet personal, grounded but irreverent, Reynolds’ voice carries readers through a tough subject with candor and compassion. Weaving personal story with hard-won wisdom, What Matters Most is the approachable, no-nonsense handbook we all need to living a life free of worry and "what ifs."

A New York Times Book Review New Noteworthy TitleA collection of essays, letters and poems from E.B. White, one of the countrys great literary treasures (New York Times), centered on the subject of freedom and democracy in America.I am a member of a party of one, and I live in an age of fear.These words were written by E. B. White in 1947.Decades before our current political turmoil, White crafted eloquent yet practical political statements that continue to resonate. Theres only one kind of press thats any good he proclaimed, a press free from any taint of the government. He condemned the trend of defamation, arguing that in doubtful, doubting days, national morality tends to slip and slide toward a condition in which the test of a mans honor is his zeal for discovering dishonor in others. And on the spread of fascism he lamented, fascism enjoys at the moment an almost perfect climate for growtha world of fear and hunger.Anchored by an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, this concise collection of essays, letters, and poems from one of this countrys most eminent literary voices offers much-needed historical context for our current state of the nationand hope for the future of our society. Speaking to Americans at a time of uncertainty, when democracy itself has come under threat, he reminds us, As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman . . . the scene is not desolate.

In this propulsive debut thriller, two women with deep secrets are thrown together by an unexpected meeting that plunges both their lives into chaos. But its a sick little girl whose fate hangs in the balance.Motherhood is tough.But then, so is daughterhood.When we first meet Claire, shes living in Sedona, Arizona with her boyfriend Cal and ducking calls from her mother. Her mom is a world class psychic on the East Coast and Claire doesnt want her to discover the truth. Claire works in the family business and calls herself a psychic, but she doesnt really have the gift and hasnt for a long time. Shes a fraud.Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Rena, a young mother, has family issues of her own.Shes divorced and her four-year-old daughter, Stephanie, suffers from mysterious, seemingly incurable stomach problems.No matter how many specialists Rena drags her to, no matter how many mommy-blog posts she makes about her childs health issues, trying to get help and support from her online community, Stephanie only gets sicker.When Claire and Rena meet by chance on an airplane, their carefully constructed lives begin to explode. Can these two women help each other and can they help Stephanie before its too late?

Jonathan Lethems first detective novel since Motherless BrooklynOne of Americas greatest storytellers. Washington PostPhoebe Siegler first meets Charles Heist in a shabby trailer on the eastern edge of Los Angeles. Shes looking for her friends missing daughter, Arabella, and hires Heist to help. A laconic loner who keeps his pet opossum in a desk drawer, Heist intrigues the sarcastic and garrulous Phoebe. Reluctantly, he agrees to help. The unlikely pair navigate the enclaves of desert-dwelling vagabonds and find that Arabella is in serious troublecaught in the middle of a violent standoff that only Heist, mysteriously, can end. Phoebes trip to the desert was always going to be strange, but it was never supposed to be dangerous. . . .Jonathan Lethems first detective novel since Motherless Brooklyn, The Feral Detective is a singular achievement by one of our greatest writers.

Amateur detective and caterer Faith Fairchild is at her Penobscot Bay, Maine cottage preparing for a summer wedding, when she stumbles across . . . another body in this 25th entry in the beloved mystery series.For the first time in years, Faith Fairchild has time for herself. Her husband Tom is spending days on the other side of the island using a friends enhanced WiFi for a project; their son, Ben, after his first year in college, is studying abroad for the summer; and their daughter Amy is working at the old Laughing Gulls Lodge, now a revamped conference center.Faith is looking forward to some projects of her own. Her friend Sophie Maxwell is also spending the summer on Sanpere Island, hoping for distractions from her worries that she isnt yet pregnant. And the daughter of Faiths good friend Pix Miller is getting married to a wonderful guy . . . with a less-than-wonderful mother. Between keeping Sophies spirits up and Pixs blood pressure down, Faith has her hands full.And thats before a body with a mysterious tattoo and connections far away from small Sanpere Island appears in the Lily Pond. Once again, Faith will get to the bottom of this strange caseand whip up a delicious blueberry buckle on the side.

"e;One of my own favorite writers."e; Elin HilderbrandNamed a Best Beach Read of Summer by Vulture, PureWow, She Reads and Women.comJ. Courtney Sullivans Maine meets the works of Elin Hilderbrand in this delicious summer read involving three strangers, one island, and a season packed with unexpected romance, well-meaning lies, and damaging secrets. Anthony Puckett was a rising literary star. The son of an uber-famous thriller writer, Anthonys debut novel spent two years on the bestseller list and won the adoration of critics. But something went very wrong with his second work. Now Anthonys borrowing an old colleges friends crumbling beach house on Block Island in the hopes that solitude will help him get back to the person he used to be.Joy Sousa owns and runs Block Islands beloved whoopie pie caf. She came to this quiet space eleven years ago, newly divorced and with a young daughter, and built a life for them here. To her customers and friends, Joy is a model of independence, hard-working and happy. And mostly she is. But this summer shes thrown off balance. A food truck from a famous New York City brand is roving around the island, selling goodiesand threatening her business.Lu Trusdale is spending the summer on her in-laws dime, living on Block Island with her two young sons while her surgeon husband commutes to the mainland hospital. When Lus second son was born, she and her husband made a deal: hed work and shed quit her corporate law job to stay home with the boys. But a few years ago, Lu quietly began working on a private project that has becoming increasingly demanding on her time. Torn between her work and home, shes beginning to question that deal she made.Over the twelve short weeks of summer, these three strangers will meet and grow close, will share secrets and bury lies. And as the promise of June turns into the chilly nights of August, the truth will come out, forcing each of them to decide what they value most, and what they are willing to give up to keep it.

"e;Tense, atmospheric, and gorgeously written, The Summer Country is a novel to savor!"e; Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice NetworkA brilliant, multigenerational saga in the tradition of The Thorn Birds and North and South, New York Times bestselling historical novelist Lauren Willig delivers her biggest, boldest, and most ambitious novel yeta sweeping Victorian epic of lost love, lies, jealousy, and rebellion set in colonial Barbados.Barbados, 1854: Emily Dawson has always been the poor cousin in a prosperous English merchant clan-- merely a vicars daughter, and a reform-minded vicars daughter, at that. Everyone knows that the familys lucrative shipping business will go to her cousin, Adam, one day.But when her grandfather dies, Emily receives an unexpected inheritance: Peverills, a sugar plantation in Barbadosa plantation her grandfather never told anyone he owned.When Emily accompanies her cousin and his new wife to Barbados,she finds Peverills a burnt-out shell, reduced to ruins in 1816, when a rising of enslaved people sent the island up in flames.Rumors swirl around the derelict plantation; people whisper of ghosts.Why would her practical-minded grandfather leave her a property in ruins? Why are the neighboring plantation owners, the Davenants, so eager to acquire Peverills? The answer lies in the past a tangled history of lies, greed, clandestine love, heartbreaking betrayal, and a bold bid for freedom.THE SUMMER COUNTRY will beguile readers with its rendering of families, heartbreak, and the endurance of hope against all odds.

Feline P. I. Joe Grey and his friends pounce on three investigations that may connect to one larger mysteryincluding one case that is very personalin this hair-raising installment in Shirley Rousseau Murphys beloved, award-winning series.Joe Grey and his partner, Dulcie, are frantic when Courtney, their pretty teen-kitten goes missing. Aided by their two- and four-legged friends, they hit the streets of Molina Point in search of their calico girl. Has Joe Grey and Dulcies only daughter been lured away by someone and stolen? Is she lying somewhere hurt, or worse?Courtney has no idea that everyone is desperately looking for her. Locked in an upstairs apartment above the local antiques shop, shes enjoying her first solo adventure. When she first met Ulrich Seaver, the shops owner, Courtney was frightened. But the human has coddled and pampered her, winning her trust. Sheltered by her parents, her brothers, and her kind human companions, the innocent Courtney is unaware of how deceptive strangers can be. She doesnt know that Ulrich is hiding a dangerous secret that could threaten her and everyone in this charming California coastal village.With his focus on finding Courtney, Joe Grey has neglected his detective work with the Molina Point Police Department. Before his daughter disappeared, Joe found a viciously beaten woman lying near the beach. Now the police investigation has stalled, and the clever feline worries his human colleagues may have missed a vital clue. Joe is also concerned about a family of newcomers whose domestic battles are disturbing the towns tranquility. Loud and abrasive, the Luthers angry arguing, shouting, and swearing in the early hours of the night have neighbors on edge and the cops on alert. One of the couples late-night shouting matches masked the sounds of a burglary, and now a criminal is on the loose.Though the crimes are as crisscrossed as the strands of a ball of yarn, Joe Greys cat senses tell him they may somehow be linked. Its up to the fleet-footed feline and his crime-solving coterie to untangle the mysteries before its too late.

From Simone Van Der Vlugt comes her European bestselling novel of a young woman's rise as a painter in Holland's Golden Ageperfect for readers of The Miniaturist, Tulip Fever, and Girl with a Pearl Earring.Amsterdam 1654: against the backdrop of Holland's Golden Age, a dangerous secret threatens to destroy a young widow's new life. Following the sudden death of her husband, twenty-five-year old Catrin leaves her small village and takes a job as a housekeeper to the successful Van Nulandt merchant family. Amsterdam is a city at the peak of its powers: science and art are flourishing in the Golden Age and Dutch ships bring back exotic riches from the Far East. Madam Van Nulandt passes her time taking expensive painting lessons from a local master, Rembrandt van Rigin, and when Catrin takes up a brush to finish some of her mistress's work, Rembrandt realizes the maid has genuine talent, and encourages her to continue. When a figure from her past threatens her new life, Catrin flees to the smaller city of Delft. There, her gift as a painter earns her a chance to earn a living painting pottery at a local workshop. Slowly, the workshop begins to develop a new type of pottery to rival fancy blue-on-white imported Chinese porcelainand the graceful and coveted Delft Blue designs she creates help revolutionize the industry. But when tragedy strikes, Catrin must decide whether to defend her newfound independence, or return to the village that she'd fled.