Dr. Reginald Alexander Crawford's friends know that this Cambridge history professor is not the type of man to drink himself silly and fall into the river, as it seems he did in January of 1996. But the authorities believe otherwise and classify his death as accidental. Those closest to Reggie suspect that he is just the latest in a line of tragedies that stretches back more than fifty years. Within days of Reggie's funeral, thirty-year-old art history professor Adam Locke receives correspondence signed by his dead friend. From the grave, Reggie requests that Adam continue the research that most likely caused Reggie's untimely death. For years, Reggie and his cohorts have been following leads in a wartime Nazi deal of confiscated paintings for pharmaceuticals. He warns that the project is risky and that others connected to the case have lost their lives in unusual circumstances. Adam accepts the challenge, and he is soon on his way to Switzerland to continue the investigation and to try to lure Reggie's killer out into the open. But the forces behind the decades-old plot are determined to remain anonymous, and they will continue to kill anyone who seek to expose them.