When Anna Rasini sees a painting of a Mediterranean street scene in the window of an Oxford art gallery her curiosity is aroused, for her mother owns a very similar work, bearing the initials N.K.' Early enquiries suggest that both works are by a Greek artist, Nikos Kladis, who may have been a wartime friend of Anna's long-lost grandfather. The trail leads Anna to Corfu, where she hopes to discover more about both Kladis and her grandfather. But she has reckoned without the disconcerting presence of Pierre Bouchard, an arrogantly handsome Frenchman who has his own reasons for being interested in the work of Nikos Kladis ...