Maggie and Allie McGill take a short cut through the snowy California mountains where they run into an unexpected whiteout blizzard, lose control of their car and nearly become popsicles. Nils Von Pfeffer, a curator of art at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris in July, 1942, risks every thing to rescue a few pieces of art, designated by the Nazis as degenerate, that were destined for destruction. How can this event, some seventy years ago impact Maggie and Allie McGill and their plans for a quiet weekend away. These two events, so widely separated by time and space, plunge Maggie and Allie into a mystery that will challenge all the courage, grace, wit and resourcefulness they can muster.