Lucia Starling gets a phone call that changes her life: Her mother has died, and in the wake of it is an inheritance of an 18th century necklace, and memories of a mother she hasn’t spoken with in five years.

Neither of which she knows what to do with, except, perhaps to escape New York and leave the country. Far from home at least, she won’t have to face her father’s sorrow, or her own guilt.

When her mother’s necklace is robbed from her hotel room in Rome, Lucia suspects the culprit to be a mysterious foreigner. When she discovers his identity, she's faced with an impossible voyage. Lucia must decide to confront her past or her future; return to New York City, or find the necklace before it’s sold on the black market and lost forever?

One thing is for certain: her mother's necklace is only the beginning.