Griet, the young daughter of a tile maker in seventeenth century Holland, obtains her first job, as a servant in Vermeer's household. Tracy Chevalier shows us through Griet's eyes, the complicated family, the society of the small town of Delft, and life with an obsessive genius. Griet loves being drawn into his artistic life, and leaving her former drudgery, but the cost to her own survival may be high.