Since she was a child, Meg had dreamed of visiting Florence, Italy, and stepping into the place captured in a picture at her grandmother's house. When her dad finally tells Meg to book the trip, she prays it will heal the fissures left by her parents' divorce. But when Meg arrives, her absent father has left aspiring memoir-writer Sofia Borelli to introduce Meg to the ancient city. Sofia claims to be a descendant of the Medicis, and that a Medici princess communicates with her from the great masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance.