When psychology professor Redmond "Mac" McClain and his artist wife, Jennifer, begin a sabbatical at Patten University in Pittsburgh, they are intrigued by the city's beauty and turbulent history. While visiting the Welsh Museum of Art, Jen wonders how the museum managed to acquire three of the five great paintings of the tragically short-lived Parisian artist, Paul Deschamps. How could these extremely valuable works have come to the smoky city of Pittsburgh in 1903, rather than to Paris or London? Mac and Jen find that little is known about Deschamps beyond his drowning in 1904. They undertake a casual research to uncover information about Deschamps. Their more immediate attention is devoted to learning about the city, and to their concerns for the faculty at Patten. Patten is facing serious financial problems, and there is a venomous ongoing struggle between the faculty union and the new, authoritarian, president of Patten. The shocking, mysterious drowning death of a faculty member whom Mac and Jen know, also preoccupies them.