Madeleine Marchand-des-Livres, a portrait painter, flees France in 1804, after her lover, Clément, is imprisoned in the Prison de l'Abbaye. Now, without aristocratic connections, she must forge a new life in London. Her only hope is that Marie Antoinette's favorite painter, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, currently living in London, can ease her entree into society. The older Frenchwoman agrees and arranges for her to attend several holiday balls during the season. At one ball, she meets Andrew Russell, son of Baron Russell of Chesterbridge. In London for the Christmas season, Andrew is at loose ends until he meets a beautiful French emigre. When he discovers that she is a portrait painter, he hires her to paint his portrait as a gift for the mythical woman he intends to marry, only to discover that woman is the portrait painter herself. Old lover or new? Madeleine must decide whether to try to rescue Clément or give into the pull of a new life with Andrew.