Frances Wingate is one of Englands most renowned archaeologists, having recently discovered a lost city in the Saharan desert. A woman who seems to have it all, Frances expertly balances her career with her four children and her lover, historian Karel Schmidt. But when Frances and Karel suddenly split, Frances throws herself into her work, finding along the way surprising connections to a family she had no idea she had. The Realms of Gold is "alive with ideas" (Anatole Broyard, The New York Times), a striking portrait of a woman searching for meaning and finding it in the most unlikely of places.