"Invited to dinner by the boorish local landowner, Martin Clay, an easily distracted philosopher, and his scrupulous art-historian wife find themselves enlisted to assess the value of three dusty paintings moldering in the freezer breakfast room. But blocking the soot from the chimney is nothing less - Martin believes - than one of the world's lost treasures, camouflaged by misattribution and the grime of centuries. Martin embarks on an obsessive quest to prove his hunch, win over his wife, separate the painting from its owner, and resolve one of the great mysteries of European art. "--BOOK JACKET.