As a sensitive, artistic young woman, Sophia Peabody is discouraged from pursuing a woman's traditional roles of marriage and motherhood. But from their first meeting, she and Nathaniel Hawthorne begin an intense romantic partnership. Together, they cross continents, raise children, and experience all the beauty and tragedy of life fully lived. But their children's needs and personal losses fuel a perennial tug-of-war between Sophia's domestic duties and her own desires. Spanning the years from the 1830s to the Civil War, and moving from Massachusetts to England, Portugal, and Italy,
