London and Oxfordshire. When his stepfather dies, Joseph Root returns home for the first time in years. He is in the mood to settle scores. To reclaim his mother's love, he plots to ruin his stepbrother. To achieve his goal, he attempts to manipulate three young women. But where feelings of the heart are concerned, who is really being used? Can even a man like Joseph Root learn how to love? Paris during the Terror. A great artist who sits on the Revolutionary committee paints the portrait of the young wife of an aristocrat and then signs the warrant for his arrest. Paris during the Occupation. When her Jewish friend is arrested and deported, a pianist uses an encore as a form of protest. First published in Shenandoah Literary Magazine (vol.64, n.1). An English village, present day. One evening, an old woman, ready to end her life, asks a young care worker to hear and document her confession. During her youth she committed a terrible crime. In making her confession the past lives again.