Sycamore is a novel of ardent love and artistic fervor, in it, Prescott Donovan, the artist, struggles to improve his technique by studying the rich heritage of modern masters in Paris where he falls in love with Yvonne Moreau, a ravishing curator at the Museum D' Orsay. Yvonne breaks up with Prescott, but in fear of indignation from her family and peers does not tell him of her pregnancy, instead she travels to the south of France where she has the child and gives the infant to her best friend Jacquelean and her husband Rob to raise as their own. After outstanding success in Paris, and on the rebound from a broken heart, Prescott returns to New York and marries Heather, an ambitious gallery owner. Several years later Yvonne shows up in New York and the story takes a dramatic turn.