When a friend dies, Julia Garnet goes to stay in Venice, where a lifetime of caution is challenged. She encounters the paintings in the local church which tell the story of Tobias and the Angel. The ancient tale of Tobias, who travels to Media unaware he is accompanied by the Archangel Raphael, unfolds alongside Julia Garnet's contemporary journey. As she unravels the story's history, Julia's own life is thrown into question for, like the shifting sea-light of Venice, nothing here is quite as it seems.

Salley Vickers writes with poise and a wit which belies the novel's deeper themes: love, death and the growth of the human spirit. This many-layered novel truly defies the usual categories.