Plot Summary

Being in Padua, Italy for two months to teach an American Art History class at the university will also give Chicago-based Emma Lowell time to research the origins of the antique lace Italian wedding veil she and her art history best friends Avery and Tracy bought together, the legend being that its possessor will find true love, which seems to be the case at least for recently married Avery thus far. While not as skeptical about love as Tracy, Emma is romance-shy in still feeling the sting from her latest break-up in believing at the time that her now-ex could have been the one if it wasn't for the long-distance circumstance. All they know about the veil is that it was featured in a late nineteenth-century painting by artist Amici. Starting at the Italian lace center of Burano, Emma does discover the two centuries-old family lace shop where the veil originated. Emma is also surprised to discover that the Italian man who she has constantly encountered while in Burano and whom she felt was following her was more the opposite in he being Paolo Di Stefano, the next generation in that lace-making family. While Paolo's family can only tell Emma about the veil's origins and its appearance in the painting, they don't know anything about the intervening time to today and how the veil made its way to San Francisco where Emma and her friends purchased it. On behalf of his family, Paolo joins Emma in the quest to discover the veil's history, for Paolo to fill in the gaps for his own sense of family. While the power of the veil seems to be working on both Emma and by association widowed Paolo in they falling for each other, they will have to decide whether to act on that power in the geographic distance that exists in their everyday lives, including being separated by an ocean, and as Paolo is in a fight with his family about the direction of the business.—Huggo