Part One — Chapter One

The narrator recounts that Alicia Berenson, a 33-year-old painter, killed her husband Gabriel, a fashion photographer. He offers opinions on their art, praising Alicia’s visceral power while finding Gabriel’s work shallow. Gabriel was murdered six years earlier during a record-hot August day.

On the day of the killing, Gabriel left early for a Vogue rooftop shoot. Alicia likely painted in her garden studio as she prepared for an exhibition. Gabriel returned home around eleven at night, and shortly after, neighbor Barbie Hellmann heard gunshots and called police.

Police arrived within minutes to a dark house with dead electrics. In the living room, they found Alicia standing by the fireplace in a white dress, seemingly frozen, and Gabriel bound to a chair, shot multiple times in the face. Blood covered the room; a gun lay on the floor, and a knife near Alicia’s feet.

Officers discovered deep, fresh cuts across Alicia’s wrists. She resisted rescue, was restrained, and taken to the Royal Free Hospital, where she survived significant blood loss. Questioned the next day with her lawyer present, Alicia refused to speak, remaining silent through interrogation and arrest, neither confessing nor denying guilt.

Alicia’s silence transformed the case into a national mystery. Under house arrest before trial, she barely ate or slept and painted intensely. Departing from her usual slow, methodical process, she completed a self-portrait within days. She titled it Alcestis in Greek letters, her only statement since the murder.