One day, a failed suicide, Elizabeth Cruikshank, is admitted to the care of psychiatrist Dr David McBride She is mysteriously reticent and it is not until he recalls a painting by Caravaggio that she is moved to recount her story As her account unfolds, David finds himself unusually touched by his patient's story of her tragic dereliction of love and trust, and by a haunting sense that his elusive patient's life has a special resonance for the hidden 'other side' of his own