Sylvie Rosenberg was once the aristocratic daughter of a prominent Dutch art dealer, until the Nazi invasion of Holland changed everything. Forced to part with his astonishing collection of masterpieces, her father managed to trade a Rembrandt for the lives of twenty-five family members, including Sylvie.

Many years later, in America, Sylvie is on a path of self-destruction, still equating love with all the “things” that were taken away from her. Pocketing small items at first, eventually her hopelessness leads to a monumental betrayal, dismantling the lives of her son, Michael, a writer and Vietnam vet still struggling with the consequences of war, and his schoolteacher wife, Angela, as they struggle to fill their own void after failed attempts to conceive a child.

Desperate to win back their love, Sylvie returns to her homeland to face old ghosts and the Dutch judicial system, seeking restitution of her family’s masterpieces. But the battle proves far more difficult than she imagined . . .