Financially straitened and on the path to spinsterhood, Venetia Milton thought her stay at the remote, ramshackle Arcane House would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to engineer her own ravishment. She was there to photograph the artifacts collected by a highly secretive organization, founded two centuries earlier by an alchemist. And the alchemist's descendant - her employer, Gabriel Jones - had the eyes of a sorcerer…

But despite her intent to seduce the man and move on, she is shattered to return home and, just a week later, read of his violent demise in the press. She uses the sizable fee Mr. Jones paid and establishes a new life, opening a gallery in London. Of course, posing as a respectable widow makes it easier to do business, so - in a private tribute to her lost, only lover - she takes on the identity of “Mrs. Jones.” But her romantic whim will cause unexpected trouble.

For one thing, Mr. Jones is about to stride, living and breathing, back into her life. And the two share more than a memory of passion - indeed, they are bonded by a highly unusual sort of vision, one that goes far beyond Venetia's abilities as a photographer. They also have in common a terrible threat - for someone has stolen a centuries-old notebook from Arcane House, containing a formula believed to enhance psychic powers of the kind Gabriel and Venetia possess. And the thief wants to know more - even if he must kill the keeper of the Arcane Society's treasures, or photographer who catalogued them, to obtain such knowledge.