A passionate retelling of a haunting Welsh myth . The moment I saw her face. The moment I breathed her water lily scent. The moment I heard her siren song. Salka, a faerie, spies Owain, a poor but handsome shepherd, who is resting by her lake, and she falls head over heels in love with him, and he with her. It is not long before they are married. Salka brings Owain good fortune and immense happiness; his farm thrives and prospers. But in the small town, people talk, gossip turns against Salka, the envious start to question everything she says and does.

and as prejudice and suspicion breed, Owain finds himself wishing his beautiful wife was more ordinary, that she tried harder to fit in, that she was less . herself. Salka always said that if Owain ever betrayed her three times, three blows to the heart, she would disappear from his life forever. And now, desperately, their future lies in his hands. Francesca Simon's first novel for an adult readership is an exquisite and tautly moving tragedy told in multiple voices, both a richly woven retelling of an ancient welsh myth and a thought-provoking drama for our times.