Scotland, 1880. Two years after the body of an unidentified young woman is found floating in Bellcraig Loch, Lavinia Averly arrives at the nearby castle with one instruction from her late father: uncover the truth of this infamous unsolved mystery.

Because Lavinia has spent her life hiding an extraordinary gift. She sees people’s emotions in vivid colours – a secret known only to her sisters. But at Bellcraig, where she’s thrust into an unconventional world of artists and poets, scandalous love affairs and dubious pastimes, everyone seems to be hiding something. And her gift quickly tells her that they are all lying when they claim to have not known the dead woman.

Most mysterious of all, is a woman named Asta.

Beautiful, captivating and utterly confounding, Asta is her first suspect. But as she is drawn ever closer to the enigmatic woman, Lavinia must ask herself – has she finally found someone she can trust... or is Asta the killer she’s been searching for all along?