Maia DApliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, Atlantisa fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Genevahaving been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritagea clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.
Eighty years earlier in Rios Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacios father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabelapassionate and longing to see the worldconvinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowskis studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.