The unseen assailant attacked Dr. Miranda Jones outside her Maine home as she returned from a busy lecture tour. After terrorizing her with a knife held to her throat, he stole her purse, slashed her tires, and disappeared. Shaken and bruised, Miranda was determined to put the assault out of her mind, and welcomed the distraction offered by a summons to Italy to verify the authenticity of a Renaissance bronze of a Medici courtesan known as The Dark Lady. However, instead of cementing Miranda's reputation as a leading authority in her field, the bronze nearly destroys it when her professional judgment is called into question and the bronze is declared a hoax.

Desperate to restore her credibility and prove The Dark Lady is really a previously unknown work of Michelangelo, Miranda turns to Ryan Boldari, a seductive - and supposedly reformed - art thief. For Miranda, forced to rely on herself and a partner with his own hidden agenda, the only way home is filled with treachery, deception, and a danger that threatens everything she loves.