In 1891, Belle Malone would rather be sketching than financially supporting her family. Emigrating from County Cork, Ireland, Belle arrives in New York City with the assurance of respectable-if predictable-work in a textile mill. In a fiery twist of fate, Belle is offered an opportunity to trade a loom for a paintbrush, working as a scenic painter in a small Bowery theater where nothing is quite as it appears to be...even beyond the vaudeville theatrics onstage. While painting in the wings, Belle befriends vibrant performer Nora Valentine, navigates tensions with brooding carpenter Connor McDevitt, and discovers a ghost from her past-Seamus Riordan, a young man from Ireland who was long presumed dead. Will he be the key to her new life in America? Or will the mysterious Seamus bring her ruin instead?