Whilst re-framing a portrait by an almost unknown artist from the Dutch Golden Age, Martin notices that the painting contains several strange features. The discovery of an old document between the backing board and the canvass heightens the mystery and he resolves to try to find out what happened to the artist, Johan Kattemeyer, and to the subject of his painting, Mariana. Mariana's Portrait flashes back to 1661, when the momentous events that changed the lives of Johan and Mariana took place. The novel is set against the backdrop of the powerful money-making machine that was Amsterdam in the mid-seventeenth century, the turbulent political times and the lucrative, but dangerous, voyages to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Martin's investigations lead him from Cape Town, where he discovers and buys the painting, back to his home in Amsterdam, and from there to the island of Texel, where he retraces Johan's footsteps and discovers the political machinations that threatened to change the entire course of European history. As the story unfolds, a series of unexpected incidents take place in the twenty-first century, which interweave with the events of centuries ago to form a web of dishonesty, treachery, love and revenge.