Ella Graham is a portrait painter, whose luminous and touching likenesses are starting to gain her widespread recognition. But when her younger sister, Chloe, asks her to paint her fiance Nate, Ella is dismayed. She loathes Nate, and she distruts him. But as they spend time together in the studio, Ella realises there is more to Nate than meets the eye. At the same time Ella is learning about her other sitters' lives: there's an elderly widow with a wartime secret, a beautiful French woman who's dreading turning forty, and a handsome politician with a confession to make. Then a message comes out of the blue from Ella's father, John, who's been out of the picture for nearly thirty years. While Chloe is planning her dream wedding, Ella is faced with a choice. To tear her family apart by revealling her secret, or to let the wedding tear her apart instead...