The biography opens in the Philadelphia of 1860, just before the Civil War.

Sixteen-year-old Mary Cassatt wants to study painting in Paris, but her wealthy father disapproves, insisting that she enroll instead at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a "graceful white edifice on Chestnut Street." Most of the paintings in its gallery are "portraits of patriots or huge canvases of historical and allegorical subjects."

During the Civil War, the Cassatts live year-round in their summer home in rural Chester County. Mary loves the countryside, away from the factories and war hospitals of the city. She particularly likes to ride horseback and to romp with the dogs.

After the war, Mary finally gains her father's consent to study art in Paris, where most of the subsequent action takes place. Wilson provides many colorful glimpses of the great French city: the galleries, the opera, and the places Mary lives...