Charismatic architect Simon Duval's iconic designs brilliantly express the dreams of his clients and his peers. His successes bring international acclaim and publicity which place him in pole position, but an envious self-appointed rival, Catherine Quaid, casts a long shadow over his life and his professional career.

GRIGOR SIDOROV is a young Russian fine artist who, after perestroika, works for the State in the restoration of Russia's art and architectural treasures. Grigor deludes himself that he alone has inherited the burden of the loss of the family's dignity, the blurring of their lineage back to the time of Tzar Peter the Great, and the dispossession of their wealth by the Bolsheviks. In the Peterhof Palace in St Petersburg, the 18th C paintings by a famous Italian artist, Pietro Rotari, provide a compelling link with his family's claims of their noble descendancy. In Grigor's obsession to own the Rotari paintings by making perfect copies he risks all, but fails in the attempt. He becomes a fugitive from the State art police. His co-worker Lara, who works at the Palace, and fell in love with him, realises that his mental stability depends on him owning the original paintings and devises a plan, never disclosing to him whether his perfect copies or the originals still hang in the Palace or in his dacha outside Moscow.