Isabel Dalhousie leads an enviable life in Edinburgh, with time for cloud-gazing, civilised conversation and good coffee from Cat's delicatessen. Alongside these pastimes, she must also keep pace with the varied pursuits of her musician husband and their young son Charlie, who is exhibiting the first, rather worrying signs of mathematical genius.

But an unexpected appeal for help from a collector who has been the victim of an important art theft threatens to take her far outside of her comfort zone.

As an incorrigible rescuer of others, Isabel can hardly refuse to assist in the collector's negotiations with those holding his beloved painting, however shadowy the circumstances may be. . .