It's when life started in earnest. Hertfordshire, 1928 - The paths of Tom and Alice collide against a haze of youthful, carefree exuberance. There's champagne and excitement, but above all there's the beginning of a love story that finds its feet by a lake one silvery moonlit evening ... It's when love stories didn't have happy endings. Paris, 1940 - Alice is living in the city of light, but the pain of the last decade has already left its mark. Against the shadow that sweeps across Europe, she and Thomas Stafford - now a world famous artist - meet once more ... It's when the story begins. London, 1986 - Bestowed with an old charcoal portrait from her grandmother, Kate Darling can't possibly imagine the secrets that have been lost to time. Kate's journey takes her to Corsica, Paris and beyond, and as time melts away she is catapulted into the heart of a love story that's as epic as it is life changing ...