Set in the French Quarter of present-day New Orleans, young, accomplished art historian Michael Bennington is hired by one of that city's prominent denizens to search for the whereabouts of a priceless artifact-purported to be a rare jewel-curiously missing from the city's Cabildo historical museum. Bennington dives into the assignment with an uncanny passion-his specialty is 19th century jewels-and ends up taking a virtual roller coaster ride through the city's fascinating historical past uncovers both real and purported, if not positively bizarre local legends, descends into the city's eclectic alternative underground and even encounters a quasi-religious, homoerotic Roman Catholic cult. It is an introduction into the colorful escapades of the likable Bennington character, the first in the Art Sleuth Mysteries series.