How do a skirmish in the Italian Alps during WWII, a cache of looted art, and a plot to steal a seemingly worthless painting connect to a Canadian restaurateur Claudia Valli? When Claudia embarks on an emotional voyage from the West Coast of Canada to Geneva Switzerland to attend her uncle Renato's memorial service, she meets up with Michael, the son of Renato's longtime friend Katia. As their liaison gains momentum, so does Claudia's quest for answers about her uncle's past prompted by his journal and fueled by a recent plot to steal the painting her uncle had sent her prior to his death-a painting considered to be worthless by Katia, an art expert. The tale of emotional personal revelations, love, war and survival, unfolds from its central plot into various subplots through Renato's diary accounts as a partisan and Claudia's quest to unravel the mystery behind the painting she has dubbed The Capizzi Madonna.