""The path that leads from the back of my cottage to Adam's lies through a meadow thick with poppies and lupine. Beyond Adam's cottage this same path disappears into the woods where Cosmo Bari, my father, disappeared one soft summer's eve ten years ago..." Ten years ago Cosmo Bari vanished, and with him, his legendary masterpiece, THE VIRGIN IN PASTEL. Since that day no one in the seaside art colony of Steeple Hill has heard from the eccentric painter. Surrounded by an extended family of Cosmo's colorful compatriots, mystery writer Kyle Bari believes he has come to terms with being abandoned by his famous father, until the day Adam MacKinnon arrives with his new lover, the beautiful but poisonous, Brett. Brett has an unerring instinct for other people's weak spots; soon the quiet colony is seething with hostility and suspicion as Brett hints he knows something about the missing artist. Kyle doesn't take Brett seriously until the long lost VIRGIN IN PASTEL is discovered hidden in an antique dresser. A few days later the painting has vanished again--and Brett is dead. Murdered..."--