A priceless necklace, a symbol of French royalty looted by the Nazis, lies hidden in a salt mine in Germany. U. S. Army Captain Grantley, responsible for recovering stolen art works, succumbs to temptation and steals the necklace. Back in the States, fear of retribution prevents Grantley, now a respected lawyer, from profiting from his theft. When Tom Weslake, a down-on-his-luck ex-cop in desperate need of money to care for his autistic son, stumbles on the secret, he must make a fateful decision: Is it worth risking his life to shake down the French government for the return of its necklace? Tom goes for it, helped by the captain's granddaughter, Frances. But he has much to learn about Frances whose secret obsession is to force the French to return the statue of the Venus de Milo she considers stolen art from the Louvre to its native Greece in exchange for the necklace. Troubles mount. Tom suspects Frances, with whom he has fallen deeply in love, is manipulating him. Then there is the lawyer with mob connections acting as a go-between to deal with. Most dangerous of all, there is Colonel Vigo of the French Secret Service with designs of his own on the necklace. Tom's extortion scheme soon goes into free fall, and he and Frances are forced to run for their lives from Chicago to Florida to Paris and the Greek islands . . .