A car crash results in the death of the parents of Bob 

Shelburne, an uncomplicated young man from Des Moines, 

Iowa. Returning to his childhood home, Bob discovers 

documents which completely alter his prosaic life and family 

history. A journal written by his grandmother reveals family 

secrets, as well as details of her experiences as a young 

woman in Nazi Germany. Accompanying the journal is a 

letter to his grandmother that discloses the information that 

her brother, Ken Hochster, was the American M.P. who was 

paid by the Nazis to provide Goering with the cyanide capsules 

in his jail cell at Nuremberg. The letter also indicates how 

Hochster was paid—with a great amount of money and five 

Nazi-confiscated art masterpieces, which were placed  in a 

safe-deposit box in Switzerland. Inside a separate envelope 

are Hochster’s will and a safe-deposit box key. 

These revelations send Bob on a voyage of discovery that 

completely transforms his life. He encounters love, danger, 

and death. His dogged determination to follow the trail begun 

by his great uncle leads to events that shake the foundations 

of the international art world.