Penny Nichols has the London apartment, the classic cat, the villa in France, the fabulous bank account, and the great guy to share them all with. So everything's perfect, right? Er, well... Pursued by gigolos, gold diggers, an ex-wife, and highly aggressive salesmen, all chasing after their millions, freelancer-turned-heiress Penny Nichols and her boyfriend, Jeremy, decide to take a whole summer off and sock away most of their inheritance. But they allow themselves one big splurge from their wish list--and that's where all the trouble begins. At an auction on the French Riviera, Penny and Jeremy win much more then they bargain for, as they uncover a centuries-old rivalry involving the theft of a strange priceless treasure linked to Beethoven's Germany. Investigating everything from a 1920s yacht on the Mediterranean, to the legendary superstitions of the island of Corsica, right up to a castle on Lake Como, Italy, Penny and Jeremy track down a mysterious elderly count whose fractured memory may hold the piece of this fascinating historical puzzle.