Young Nella is off to marry an older man she barely knows and start her life as the wife of a rich Amsterdam merchant. She receives a large replica of the house as a wedding gift, and as Nella furnishes it, the secrets of all the house's inhabitants unravel. Nella is very naive and you kind of want to shake her sometimes. But, she's brave and resourceful and means well, and it gets you on her side, especially when you remember she's only 18, and nearly everybody else in the house is much older and wiser than she is.

I really enjoyed this a lot. I get tired of historical novels set in the same periods and places repeatedly, and 1600s Amsterdam, when the Dutch East India Company was at the height of its power. As I look back on this novel, I realize there were some threads that didn't get tied up as neatly as I'd expected, but it was still very satisfying. Burton is an author to watch!