In the summer of 1980 a young Senate aide, Greg Hunter, discovers a painting at an estate sale in Virginia that he believes was painted by Johannes Vermeer, one of the old masters, and worth millions. He purchases the painting for $500 and later removes the frame from the painting and discovers a letter hidden in the back of the frame. He is stunned when he finds that the note, dated, November 1945, is from Adolph Hitler awarding the Iron Cross to U-boat Captain Wilhelm Hoffmann and presenting him the Vermeer painting for providing a safe passage for Hitler and his party crossing the Atlantic to South America. Hunter realizes that Hitler supposedly committed suicide in April 1945. Is he still alive? What follows is a desperate attempt by others to steal the painting and to find Hitler.