At the tender age of twenty-one, Pico's world is one of linguistic puzzles and academic pursuits. A student at the University of Copenhagen, she is thrilled to get a summer job working for enigmatic antique dealer Antonio Bartram. When Antonio suddenly disappears leaving behind nothing but a series of cryptic messages, Pico decides to use her linguistic prowess to decode the clues – with fateful consequences.
 
As Pico investigates, she uncovers a labyrinthine plot that stretches back decades to the theft of a priceless Caravaggio from a church in Sicily. Caught in the crosshairs of an obsessive art collector, a police murder investigation and a Mafia-sanctioned vendetta, her quest takes her across Europe: from the shadows behind the veneer of Copenhagen's Nordic serenity, down the sun-kissed streets of the Italian Riviera, and even along the secretive corridors of the Vatican.
 
As she fights to uncover the truth and witnesses the lengths one will go to protect the secrets of the past, Pico confronts the moral quandaries that emerge when the pursuit of art eclipses the bounds of right and wrong.