In the seventeenth century, a young Roman woman secretly poses in a marigold chemise for her best friend for a series of sensuous paintings.

The young woman artist longs for recognition as a painter, but the times dictate that she can only be an assistant for her father, who is commissioned to paint religious icons for the church. The garment and the paintings pass through generations of Italian families to the present day. Intrigue, betrayal, murder, and passion follow the marigold chemise and the paintings from Rome, Florence, New York, back to Rome, and finally, Corsica.

Along the way, the marigold chemise becomes the inspiration for a wildly successful lingerie company, flourishing in the Roman studio on Via Margutta, where the paintings were originally created.1