When Jeffrey Lawler inherits a pair of masterworks by two famous European painters, he discovers unexplained gaps in their records of prior ownership. Determined to find the reason, he decides to investigate. He draws up a list of art dealers and gallery owners through whom the artworks may have passed. But just as he is getting closer to solving the mystery, he is killed by a hit-and-run driver-and the list turns up missing. Anxious to avenge Jeffrey's death, his beautiful widow, Rebecca, enlists the help of two experts, Georges Lartigue, a provenance specialist from Paris, and David Neville, an old friend and former lover. The trail leads them from the port of Balboa to the art galleries in Madrid, through the salons of Lisbon and Paris, to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. There Georges finds the key to the missing piece in the puzzle, but not before Rebecca suddenly realizes that the same people who killed her husband have targeted her for death too.