After surviving a shipwreck and finding her way to Golden Age Amsterdam, beautiful and clever but naive Isabela Calderon returns to her 17th-century Spanish village at age seventeen to fulfill the destiny her deceased father set in motion at her birth. When she finds her beloved childhood home altered and life with her husband unbearable, Isabela seeks solace from a healer cook, a mysterious, erudite tailor of unknown origin, and her husband's long-term mistress who hides a threatening secret. Isolated and distraught when illness and the Inquisition destroy these precious friendships, she again sets sail - this time with her two children - to the New World towns of San Agustin and New Amsterdam. While serving as a language interpreter in a dingy jail cell, she reconnects with the engaging and attentive Dutch artist, Pieter Hals, with whom she spent a memorable evening a decade earlier. At the time she was suddenly wrenched away from the Amsterdam orphans in her care, Pieter had begun painting her portrait. Now when the possibility of a renewed and joyful relationship looms, while the unfinished youthful portrait beckons from its attic perch across the sea in Amsterdam, obstacles and self-doubt continue to block Isabela's path to self-fulfillment and happiness."

A historic family drama based in and near 1640 Amsterdam, the wealthiest city on earth at the time, The Seventh Etching tells the story of two families over a one-year period. Both Griet and Johannes Verhoeven, farmers, in their early 20's and Jos and Myriam Broekhof, wealthy merchants in their 30's, face devastating losses that threaten their livelihoods and their marriages.

After a major flood, Griet and Johannes attempt to rebuild two combined family farms - a unique, promising inheritance that initially brought them together, but now overwhelms them. Myriam secretly sells her husband's valuable art collection to build a hidden monument to her deceased daughter. Jos suffers despair and defeat as he combs every corner of the city in his obsessive attempt to complete a set of playfully erotic etchings. It is a six-year old Gypsy orphan, Nelleke, who connects the two couples. Sprightly and spirited, Nelleke both delights and exasperates. Might this mysterious child have the power to heal struggling adults and find the permanent home she seeks? Does she, innocently and unknowingly, hold the clue to the missing etching, as Jos suspects?

After surviving a shipwreck and finding her way to Golden Age Amsterdam, beautiful and clever but naive Isabela Calderon returns to her 17th-century Spanish village at age seventeen to fulfill the destiny her deceased father set in motion at her birth. When she finds her beloved childhood home altered and life with her husband unbearable, Isabela seeks solace from a healer cook, a mysterious, erudite tailor of unknown origin, and her husband's long-term mistress who hides a threatening secret. Isolated and distraught when illness and the Inquisition destroy these precious friendships, she again sets sail - this time with her two children - to the New World towns of San Agustin and New Amsterdam. While serving as a language interpreter in a dingy jail cell, she reconnects with the engaging and attentive Dutch artist, Pieter Hals, with whom she spent a memorable evening a decade earlier. At the time she was suddenly wrenched away from the Amsterdam orphans in her care, Pieter had begun painting her portrait. Now when the possibility of a renewed and joyful relationship looms, while the unfinished youthful portrait beckons from its attic perch across the sea in Amsterdam, obstacles and self-doubt continue to block Isabela's path to self-fulfillment and happiness."

A historic family drama based in and near 1640 Amsterdam, the wealthiest city on earth at the time, The Seventh Etching tells the story of two families over a one-year period. Both Griet and Johannes Verhoeven, farmers, in their early 20's and Jos and Myriam Broekhof, wealthy merchants in their 30's, face devastating losses that threaten their livelihoods and their marriages.

After a major flood, Griet and Johannes attempt to rebuild two combined family farms - a unique, promising inheritance that initially brought them together, but now overwhelms them. Myriam secretly sells her husband's valuable art collection to build a hidden monument to her deceased daughter. Jos suffers despair and defeat as he combs every corner of the city in his obsessive attempt to complete a set of playfully erotic etchings. It is a six-year old Gypsy orphan, Nelleke, who connects the two couples. Sprightly and spirited, Nelleke both delights and exasperates. Might this mysterious child have the power to heal struggling adults and find the permanent home she seeks? Does she, innocently and unknowingly, hold the clue to the missing etching, as Jos suspects?