Milan, 2012. Photographer Valentina Rosselli has been living with her lover of one year, Theo Steen, but she can't shift the uneasy feeling that she shouldn't be settling down. When she is offered an intriguing photography assignment, to take pictures of those who indulge in the darker side of desire, she gets drawn into a shadowy world that reveals a side to her she has not yet explored...

Venice 1924. Belle is on a quest. Unfulfilled by her husband and caged by the constraints of society, she strives to liberate herself by using her body in a secret life as a courtesan. She longs to meet the man who can not only fulfill her sexually, but also love her.

Belle and Valentina are living parallel lives, but what connects them? Theirs is a story that taps into the secret desires of all modern women, and explores the relationship between sex and true love.

The novel Valentina is based on Guido Crepax's 1960's iconic graphic novel of the same name.