Nella Oortman is married off by her family to a merchant, Johannes Brandt, at the age of eighteen. Moving to Amsterdam and becoming the new head of house in a rich home doesn't turn out quite as she expected.
Johannes treats her with respect, although he's rarely home. Nella is left with a secretive family consisting of Johannes's sister, a house maid, and a black house man. It is rare in the sixteen hundreds to give a person of color the status and comfort of a home and job.
Johannes gives Nella a wedding present of a miniature house replicating their home. When Nella is left alone and longing to get to know her husband, she turns to filling the little house and calls on an artist to create the furniture and people.
The artist, or miniaturist, matches the interior of the house strangely with exactness. This includes the current items and those that somehow tell the future. When a small baby doll arrives for Nella, she wonders if it's her that will be blessed with a child.
More clues that tell the future and aren't understood fill Nella with many questions as to the fate of her marriage, her new family, and the household.
Johannes has his own difficulties with his trading business, his new wife, and his private social life.
Some secrets must be kept hidden and others dealt with. The strange love circling the Brandt house brings a shattering change to all.
Happy reading,
Dawn
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