Told primarily through diary entries over the course of a single year, Nerissa is a fascinating story of love and coming of age in turn of the century Scotland. A young painter laboring under sexism in the art world finds herself in the arms of an older lover. As she candidly reveals the complex attitudes and desires of a girl suddenly struggling with her power over men and the temperament of an artist, we find parallels between her life and the life of the modern day painter who unearthed her lost diary. Nerissa is Elisabeth Rohm's first novel.