Robert D. Goodale

Martha, an American lady who has lived in Italy for many years without ever learning the language; and Renato, twenty five years younger than Martha, who for all his life has been working odd jobs and has no place to call home. Martha's home is a house in Tuscany she has inherited from her grandfather. There she lived and brought up her children after an early divorce. Martha, who at times suffers from a sudden loss of memory, and her obsession with the large country home, has become a nuisance to her children. They have send their mother to a care center, and are trying to sell the house. We meet Renato when he has just taken on a job for a small detective agency that specializes in divorce cases. He is observing two lovers traveling together through Northern Italy when he meets Martha who has run away from the care center.

A biography of the eighteenth century Viennese physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who used unorthodox healing practices based on his theory of "animal magnetism."