This is the fantastic story of the quest for a fabulous gemstone. Max Gordon is an investigator for an insurance company that holds the policy on a rare one hundred forty carat diamond called the Blue Danube, owned by a wealthy New Jersey family to whom he is related by marriage. The family is financially troubled and engages in diamond smuggling and an international pyramid scheme to stay solvent. Max's concern is fueled by a former girlfriend who wants to rekindle their romance and by several unexplained deaths and disappearances of business associates charged with safekeeping the rare gem. Concern turns to suspicion when a family scion mysteriously dies in a yacht explosion. Max travels between Florida's gold coast and Paris where he finds the demons of his past while precariously balancing his family and his future.