Savvy art expert Fred Taylor, factotum for a wealthy Beacon Hill collector too refined -- and too paranoid -- to do his own legwork, enjoys an odd but well-paid life acting on Clayton Reed's whims. Reed suspects that there may be a Vermeer worth millions concealed under a boring landscape coming up for auction. Fred finds his mission to get the Vermeer hindered by Reed's purchase of an unsigned nude from a down-and-out photographer of pornography who is subsequently rubbed out in his sleazy studio. With various vultures circling -- including the Boston PD -- Fred is thrust into detection in order to score the painting, if it exists, and escape jail. His biggest obstacle is to pry the truth out of his own employer....