Boston-based art detectives Sarah Kelling and husband Max Bittersohn were hoping for some time offafter their last case. That hope dies quickly though, when they run into Countess Lydia Ouspenska, an expert forger of Byzantine icons. She tells them that an old aquaintance, Bartolo Arbalest, known in their circles as "The Resurrection Man" because of his skills in restoring damaged works of art, has set-up a Renaissance-style "guild" in their fair city. Nothing mysterious about that of course, except for the fact that some of Boston's wealthiest citizens have been murdered shortly after valuable object d'arts restored by Arbalest's organisation were returned to them. When Sarah's old friend George Protherie becomes the latest victim, her investigation, which ties in with Max's search into Arablest's background, reveals that Protherie was not the staid Boston Brahmin he appeared. In fact, he was guarding an array of secrets that stretch back to his old days as an importer of oriental antiquities...