"It is 1961 and the artist Agnes Pelton, nearly eighty, is close to death. Surrounded by a few of her cherished paintings and the boxes that contain her memorabilia--her papers--she pours out her story and shares her secrets at last. Born into a family ruined by the famous Beecher-Tilton scandal, Agnes's life is complicated by poor health and intense shyness as she grows up with her mother and grandmother in a darkly draped Brooklyn house. Always artistic, Agnes finds her escape at the Pratt Institute, studying with Arthur Wesley Dow, and from there embarks on a lifelong quest to develop her own style of abstract art. Success comes early when she exhibits in the famous Armory Show of 1913, after which she is befriended by Mabel Dodge and mentored by another Manhattan socialite with whom she falls into unrequited love. She suffers defeats and heartbreak, travels to Italy, New Mexico, Hawaii, and California, and finally arrives in the desert town of Cathedral City, near Palm Springs. Here she settles into a sheltered and contemplative life, painting the vivid abstracts that are her joy and her reason for being."--Provided by publisher.