The horticultural historian and novelist considers how the lotus, lily, sunflower, rose and tulip have enflamed hearts and minds around the world. She shows how the opium poppy returned to haunt its originators in the West and how Confucius saw virtue and modesty in the orchid while the Greeks saw only sex. Above all, Potter demonstrates how these seven flowers have come to be metaphors for life, death, purity, passion, greed, envy, virtue, hope and consolation.