Kate Marsden nurse intrepid adventurer saviour of the lepers or devious manipulator immoral and dishonest As she lies on her deathbed visited by the ghosts of her past who should we believe Kate or those who accuse her of duplicity Memory is a fickle thing recollections may be frozen in time or distorted by the mirror of wishful thinking Kates own story is one of incredible achievements illicit love affairs and desperate longing those of her accusers paint a very different portrait of a woman determined on fame and fortuneThe reader navigates a narrative as fractured as the Siberian ice Kate crosses in search of a cure for leprosy and as beautiful as Rose her lost love as the full picture emerges of a life lived when women were not expected to break the mould