Born into a wealthy family in northern England, sent to boarding school, and educated by nuns, Ivory Frame escapes to interwar Paris where she finds herself through art, living amongst the most brilliant and bohemian people: the surrealists. Torn between a volatile and all-consuming affair with a Russian painter, and her soaring ambition, Ivory's life is violently interrupted by WWII. But her urge to create never deserts her. Now, aged 90, Ivory labours defiantly in the frozen north at her last, greatest artwork - a vast account of animal language - alone except for her sharp research assistant Skeet...