The Illuminated Manuscript opens with a vision: young Caroline Harris, sewing by the fire, witnesses her own past and her own future in the flames, thus introducing this beautiful, moving work about the lives of women seeking truth. A woman in the present day is writing a journal, an open search for harmony, understanding and the divine language that might make communication with the angels possible; at the same time, she is writing epiphanic pages influenced by William Blake, and a historical novel that comes to her as a gift. These three elements are the ribbons, the lace, and the light and dark fabric woven together by Ruth Moffat into a compelling novel of grace and wonder, depicting the lives of Elizabeth McMaster, Caroline Harris, and the mysterious Sophie. Magic, tragedy, love, and history are here intertwined through the stories of four women linked across centuries by dreams and imagination, by daring to be themselves, by the metaphysical fabric of their lives.