The story begins in a Chelsea studio. Margaret Macdonald, artist, is faced with the challenge of disposing of her husband’s ashes. Toshie, known as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect/artist, has recently died of cancer. It is her dearest wish to scatter his ashes on the waters of Port Vendres, the place he was happiest. Such is her grief, she finds this an almost impossible task. By recalling their early fraught, but exciting courtship, and their notoriety in Glasgow as ‘The Spook School’, she summons up enough courage to at least set out for France.