Leonardo da Vinci was born on Saturday, April 15, 1452 in Anchiano, a village near Vinci in Italy, the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci and a young peasant girl named Caterina. It took 300 years to authenticate his birth date and little is known of his mother. The child grew to become one of the great creative geniuses of all time.

The author, while researching a project on the 19th Century revolution of Risorigmento, was suddenly confronted by several strong, realistic "visions" of Leonardo and Caterina urging her to write their story. At first she was frightened, but when the visions continued she could no longer ignore them. She came to believe it was her fate to be the person to tell the world of the mother-son relationship and the meaning of his sketches and the painting of the Mona Lisa.

It was the only painting Leonardo never sold, it was always with him. Other women may have posed for it, but one vision revealed that the Mona Lisa was a portrait of Caterina as he remembered her.