Two years ago Vicky Bradford was studying Renaissance painting in Venice but just as she started work on what seemed to be a very exciting art project her small room at Apenzioni was broken in to and everything was taken, her passport, books, notes and papers from the year’s courses study. Although everyone tried to assure that this could happen to anyone she was convinced that the burglar had singled her out. She returns to America then some years later, now married she returns to Venice on her honeymoon with her husband and is excited about going to an art gallery to view an original Raphael painting. However her husband tells her that the painting hanging in the gallery is a fake. She decides they must find her old tutor, who had authenticated the painting, to get an explanation.