Nicholas Coughlan is twelve years old when his father, an Irish civil servant, announces that God has commanded him to become a painter.
But it will take a series of chance events--and perhaps, a proper miracle--to convince both to follow their hearts to where they\'re meant to be..
Nicholas and Isabel, it seems, were always meant to meet.
Suddenly the winds of fortune begin to shift, sweeping both these souls up with them.
And then, the day after Isabel\'s wedding to man she doesn\'t love, Nicholas arrives on her western isle, seeking his father\'s last surviving painting.
Years later, Isabel will continue to somehow blame herself, casting off her own chances for happiness.
And yet this family, too, is struck by tragedy: a seizure leaves the boy mute and unable to play.
She\'s a passionate girl, but her brother is the real prodigy, a musician.
Isabel Gore is the daughter of a poet.
Years later, Nicholas\'s own civil-service career is disrupted by tragic news: his father has burned down the house, with all his paintings and himself in it.
He abandons the family and a wife who is driven to despair.
Nicholas Coughlan is twelve years old when his father, an Irish civil servant, announces that God has commanded him to become a painter
