Art dealer Alex Clayton and conservator John Porter are thrilled to be previewing the Melbourne International Museum of Art's (MIMA) newest exhibition, until they witness a museum worker collapse and badly damage a reportedly cursed painting.

Belief in the curse is strengthened when MIMA's senior conservator Meredith Buchanan dies less than twenty-four hours later while repairing the work. But Alex and John are convinced there is a decidedly human element at work in the museum.

The evidence sets them on the trail of a mysterious painting that could hold a key to Meredith's death, and the stakes are raised higher when Alex is offered her dream job at MIMA. Damaging the museum's reputation will jeopardise her professional future.

The friends soon realise they are facing an adversary far more ruthless than they had anticipated, and there is much more at risk than Alex's career.