Set in the vibrant span of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, The Signature of All Things is an expansive novel that traverses across continents from London, to Peru, to Philadelphia, and beyond. This is the tale of Alma Whittaker, born to a wealthy and unorthodox botanist, Henry Whittaker, who gathered his immense fortune through the quinine trade. Endowed with her father's intellect and means, Alma grows into an extraordinary botanist in her own right. Her unflagging pursuit of knowledge draws her deep into the enigmas of evolution, while her heart finds an opposite attraction in Ambrose Pike, a painter whose work captures the ethereal beauty of orchids. Their unlikely love affair propels Alma on a journey that is deeply entwined with the quest to fathom the mechanistics of life. Elizabeth Gilbert weaves a narrative rich with historical characters from a backdrop of an era where the very boundaries of science, religion, and society are seismically shifting.