The Improbability of Love Summary
Hannah Rothschild

The Improbability of Love Overview

Annie McDee is a 31-year old woman who has come to London after an abrupt end to a long-term business partnership and relationship. Annie, who works as a personal chef, buys a junk shop painting for a birthday gift for a new man in her life who doesn't bother to show up for dinner. Annie wants to return the painting but the shop burns down and she is saddled with it. The painting speaks to the reader and eventually reveals that it is the work of a famous French painter and has been the property of many royal and otherwise celebrated people throughout history. Annie eventually tries to trace the painting's origins and in the meantime becomes enamored with a starving artist named Jesse and tending to her well-intentioned, but alcoholic mother, Evie. When Annie becomes the personal chef of the Winkleman family, renowned in the international art world, she is introduced to the wealthy and powerful who have the abilities to both help her career and ruin her life. Annie's painting is called The Improbability of Love and the lineage reveals duplicitous behavior by the head of the Winkleman family. What once was a simple purchase of an assumed simple piece of art lands Annie in prison as the Winkelman family scrambles to cover its horrific behaviors. Love does conquer all, however, and Annie is released from prison after Jesse's refusal to believe in Annie's guilt and his perseverance in ferreting out the truth.