Set during the darkest days of World War II, an unforgettable historical novel about love, war, and family told in the voices of two women, generations apart, connected by perfume and a mysterious journal. With her family's perfumery in dire straits Stella Penhallam must uncover the secrets of their past to save their future. Stella believes she may have stumbled upon the miracle she needs when her great-aunt's journal from 1940s Paris finds its way to her. Within the diary are a handful of missing pages that may hold the answers to restoring her family's business and luster. Reading her aunt's words, she is transported back eighty years, to a time when darkness engulfed the City of Light. As war engulfs Europe in September 1939, Iris Penhallam finds herself in an impossible situation that will bring her world crashing down. Within months, the Nazis have easily broken French defenses, and Paris is no longer safe. Nor is Italy, where her mentor's family are threatened by Mussolini's fascist thugs.

With no one to turn to for help, saving them falls to Iris alone. Using her position as a perfumer, she travels to Venice on the legendary Orient Express under the guise of meeting her fellow apprentice, Alessandro, to continue their work creating five intoxicating new scents. Five scents that will be lost amid the chaos of the war, along with the man Iris loves. As Stella delves deeper into her aunt's life, past and present begin to intertwine, bringing together the fates of these two women--each chasing five scents that will save them and forge their futures .