A biography of Gwen John, sister of painter Augustus John. Though a painter in her own right, Gwen's life was bound up with Augustus, his women and his coteries. She was defiant yet shy, she painted and modelled amid the Bohemian circles of early 20th-century Paris and had a long love affair with the French sculptor Rodin. She was a friend of Symbolist poets and post-Impressionist painters. Later she turned to religion, which helped her to achieve a serenity that masked her inner turbulence, all influencing her haunting paintings. Based on her lively and passionate letters, this biography uncovers the life of an ardent and complicated personality of an early 20th-century artist.