Why would a burglar break in to a Washington, DC art gallery and steal an historic fountain pen worth $2,000, but leave behind other art and cultural items worth tens-of-thousands of dollars each? And why would someone else later commit murder to protect the burglar's secret?

These are some of the questions that confront Socrates Cheng, the Chinese/Greek PI, as he investigates the burglary and tries to reconcile his three disparate cultures, in a murder mystery that takes him from Georgetown, to Chinatown, and thoughout the Washington Metro area.