Struggling writer Jess Conover needs a job. But when he meets lovely, willowy Elena on a cold November night in Boston, he is swept into an age-old mystery instead.

At first he thinks that it is Elena herself who makes him feel as if his whole reality is about to be transformed. Then Jess discovers that this woman, who talks so knowingly about love, is the leader of a "mystery school" going back many centuries.

The Daughters of Joy, as they are called, serve Amor, the god of love. In the modern world, with its restless longing and terrifying violence, Amor may seem extinct. Yet the lessons of love have been passed on like a secret treasure from generation to generation. Jess is compelled to enter "the second world" that lies behind our own, a place nurtured and preserved by a handful of women who can guide him on this remarkable adventure of the heart.