March 1926, Salem, Massachusetts

A spring equinox party at the mansion of a rich, flamboyant, and controversial art collector promises New York jazz singer Lizzie Crane and her band a fat paycheck, lucrative connections, and plenty of fun. She'll also have an opportunity to reconnect with a handsome Boston Brahmin she fancies.

But the excitement she hopes for doesn't turn out the way she expected. On the night of the musicians' first performance, a naked young woman trots into the ballroom on horseback, sweeps up a talented artist named Sebastian, and rides off with him into the night. The next morning, Lizzie discovers the artist's body tied to a tree, shot full of arrows like the martyred Saint Sebastian in Botticelli's painting.

Soon, Lizzie learns that her business partner, pianist Sidney Somerset, once had a close relationship with the dead man—and police suspect Sidney of murdering him. As she tries to protect her friend and discover the killer, Lizzie gets entangled in the treacherous underworld of art theft and forgery, a world where fantastic sums of money change hands and where lives are cheap.