Boston-based art detectives Sarah Kelling and husband Max Bittersohn were hoping for some time off after their last case. That hope dies quickly, though, when they run into Countess Lydia Ouspenska, an expert forger of Byzantine icons, who tells them that an old acquaintance, 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 objects 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 Arbalest'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 . . .
