Hurt and confused by the sudden end of her strange love affair with Venetian millionaire Marco Donato, Sarah Thomson takes her bruised heart to Paris, where she tries to forget her yearning for Marco by throwing herself into a new project: a study of the life of notorious nineteenth-century courtesan, Augustine Levert, whose sensual charms parted many a man from his fortune.It is while she is in France that Sarah meets her ex-boyfriend Steven, who is hoping for a reconciliation. They rekindle their psychologically and sexually tortured relationship, but when her life begins to parallel Augustine's story, Sarah realises she will never erase Marco from her heart.Faced with a choice between safety and overwhelming passion, will both women make the right decision?