Declan Curtis is a bohemian Oriental rug dealer who is fond of single malt, fine food and Emily Dickinson. His idyllic existence is disrupted when his wife runs off with a mutual friend. He starts drinking too much and taking chances. While doing business in Zurich, he is offered a dicey proposition. In Tel Aviv he meets with a mysterious paterfamilias known as "Uncle." He agrees to be a middleman in a ransom deal between Uncle's Russian Jewish family and a Russian mob in Brighton Beach in Brooklyn. This almost costs him his life and thrusts him into an underworld of thugs and murderers. In the end he has to face a dangerous mob boss on his own and make what he calls "Bonhoeffer's leap," a moral decision about dealing with an evil man.