The Butterfly Box

The butterfly box is a small art nouveau cigarette case which has been in Lucy Marshall's family for years. Together with a family portrait allegedly by Klimt, it has been passed down through four generations of mothers and daughters. But the butterfly box hides a secret, which is revealed when the family come together at Lucy's home in the Cotswolds to celebrate her eightieth birthday. Around her Lucy gathers her daughter Beena, granddaughter Joanna, who is bringing her new boyfriend to meet them for the first time, and, in spirit, her mother Louise. It is Louise's journals, left in Lucy's keeping and long unread, which reveal that the box lies at the centre of a family scandal far darker than anyone suspected.