The new case of Tom Kirk - a private detective investigating the most mysterious crimes. Leonardo da Vinci's painting "Madonna of the Spindle" is stolen from a castle in Scotland, and Tom suspects that his long-time rival is behind the theft of the masterpiece. However, Kirk's first attempt to get out on the stolen “Madonna” ends in disaster - his friend, the Spaniard Raphael, an expert in forgery of paintings by old masters, is found murdered. But before his death, he managed to send Tom an object from the “Egyptian” service of Emperor Napoleon. Why did he do this? To understand this, Kirk will have to return again to the world of crimes associated with art - a world where human life is worth less than the crudest copy of an ancient painting...