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Jan, a floundering 34 year old, lives a dissatisfied life in a Vancouver suburb. His life takes a turn when he receives a letter from Berlin informing him that he is a benefactor in the estate of his estranged grandfather. Jan flies to Berlin, curious of his inheritance, but compelled to unearth the mysterious disappearance of his mother 30 years prior.
In Berlin, Jan connects with Julien, his German half-brother whose emerging film production business and opulent lifestyle has left him riddled with debt. Jan becomes increasingly wary of Julien’s desire to draw him into an array of schemes including renovating and flipping the family home and finding a grey market buyer for their inherited valuable modernist painting whose provenance is under suspicion and whose ownership is subject to a lengthy court battle. Jan becomes increasingly frustrated with Julien’s ploys to repay the loan sharks that haunt him. In the height of Julien’s desperate coercion, he disappears in an apparent kidnapping.
Initially, Jan is indignant believing that Julien has left him high and dry with outstanding commitments. However, as Jan begins to deconstruct Julien’s affairs, he learns that his business is rife with inconsistencies and that his downward spiral has been deliberately orchestrated. Jan is able to conclude that the loan sharks who are pressing Julien to raise cash immediately are associated with the secret would-be grey market buyer of the painting who now only needs Jan’s signature to complete the sale.
Determined to get to the bottom of the intrigue, Jan must discover the true owner of the painting. He undertakes to unearth the murky family secrets that had remained buried in the debris of World War II. The closer Jan comes to discovering the truth about the painting, the more he understands that the disappearance of his mother, the demise of his brother, a string of unexplained deaths and the growing danger to his own life are all tied to a multi-generational plot to control the truth about the legacy of a formerly prominent Jewish family. The intrigue builds to a climax as Jan discovers that at the heart of the mystery is a man who is exercising a lifelong vendetta against his grandfather.
Jan’s journey through his family intrigue in Berlin draws him into a world of passion, intrigue and moral confusion previously unknown to him in his suburban Canadian world.
