Adam Scott is bequeathed an unspoken secret by his father leading him to a Swiss bank and a priceless 14th century icon. In trying to clear his father's name, he stumbles upon a revelation that could change the balance of power between America and the Soviet Union.

The German Army begins to shatter before the advancing Soviet forces in 1944. Two Russian soldiers burrow into the crypt of a German church, where, clutched in the hands of a priest's skeleton, they discover a priceless icon last seen in the grasp of Rasputin, the mad monk who mesmerized the Romanovs. When news of the discovery reaches Moscow, Stalin calls upon his most trusted investigator, Inspector Pekkala, to unravel the secret of the icon's past....