'When bushfires threatened her home some fifteen years ago, Yvonne Louis thankfully managed to save the treasured Dutch heirlooms that had been handed down to her by her mother. But the near-catastrophe caused her to see these objects in a new light. She pondered especially on her favourite painting, a portrait of an elegant and mysterious young woman whom her family had once nicknamed "Miss Maris". Who was she really? And who had painted her?' (From the publisher's website.)
