16th October 1943, inside the Vatican as darkness descends upon Rome. Having been alerted to the Nazi plan to round up the city's Jewish population the next day, Monsignor M dispatches to bring Ludwig Pollak and his family to safety. But Pollak shows no sign of leaving his home; instead, he recounts his spell-binding life story: how he studied archaeology in Prague, his passion for Italy and Goethe, how he became a renowned antiquities dealer and advisor to great collectors, and his spectacular discovery of the missing arm from the ancient sculpture of Laocoên and his sons.
