It's the Cold War. Fidel Castro is clinging to power in Cuba as the CIA, the Mafia and counter-revolutionaries try to take him out. His gorgeous go-to girl assassin, Pilar Rivera, is all that stands between him and the graveyard. The Cuban Missile Crisis is winding down, and Russia removes their nuclear missiles. Or do they? Rogue Russian agents help Fidel Castro smuggle nuclear warheads into the US. Now, five ticking nuclear timebombs are just waiting to be detonated whenever Castro feels the need. While famed columnist Dorothy Kilgallen is investigating the JFK assassination, she uncovers the story. It's up to Pilar to keep her from telling it, even as she's coping with Che Guevara in Cuba, Lucky Luciano in Italy, Elvis Presley in New York, Marilyn Monroe at Lake Tahoe, and Jackie Kennedy in the Mediterranean.

The story takes a twist when Pilar discovers Rafael's Portrait of a Young Man, a masterpiece stolen by the Nazis in World War II, hanging on Lucky Luciano's wall, and is drawn into the larcenous world of stolen and art and forged masterpieces.

It's a sweeping tale of sex, intrigue, murder and madness involving the rat pack, the jet set, mobsters, moguls, and the most iconic figures of the 20th century, as told by Jack Ruby, the last man standing - right next to the girl who came calling.