Eve Curie traces her mother’s life from childhood in Russian-ruled Poland, where Marie Skłodowska developed an early commitment to learning, through years of work and financial difficulty before studying science in Paris. The book follows her marriage to Pierre Curie and their partnership in research, including the discovery of polonium and radium and the demanding work required to isolate radioactive substances.

The narrative continues through international recognition, Nobel Prizes and Pierre’s sudden death in 1906, after which Curie maintained her research and academic work. It describes the professional and personal pressures she faced, her organisation of radiological services during the First World War, and her later leadership of the Radium Institute. Drawing on letters, family recollections and documents, Eve Curie also presents her mother’s private life, relationships and working habits, concluding with her declining health, continued scientific activity and death in 1934.