On a balmy autumn afternoon in Paris, in the year 1868, young winemaker Casimir de Chateauneuf wanders through the hollow arcades of the Palais Royal. Browsing in a small shop filled with curiosities from the Orient, he spies a cache of fine miniature portraits. Above all others, an ivory-skinned beauty captivates him. Her eyes--one blue, the other yellow. That night they pursue Casimir in his dreams, as one burning question consumes him: Who is she?

Thus begins Casimir's dizzying quest for the object of his obsession. Forsaking his family, his vocation, his country, Casimir sails from Marseilles to North Africa, plunging into a strange new world with blind faith in destiny. His journey leads him to Istanbul, "city of the world's desire." There, in a deserted palace of the former sultan, is hidden the woman of his reveries, the woman with one blue eye, the other yellow. To touch her is forbidden. But in this city of passion, in a Palace of Tears, Casimir is about to discover what it will mean to make a dream real...and what awaits him when his lover is set free.

Filled with breathtaking visions -- from the lavish courts of the Second Empire in France to a boat ride along the Bosphorus, from a sultan's hushed harem to two lovers locked in a long night of passion -- The Palace of Tears is an epic adventure of the heart, as enthralling as a romantic opera, as tantalizing as The Arabian Nights, a lush and hypnotic meditation on the forces of history, fate, and love.