The Beatrice Butler Museum in Boston, Massachusetts houses a world-renowned art collection. Early one morning, thirteen of the museum's finest and most valuable paintings -- by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and others -- were stolen by thieves masquerading as cops. Until now the high-profile crime has remained unsolved.A reluctant sleuth, Tommy Shakespear leaves his surfboard and his mountain bike behind at the request of an old friend, Jack Butler, and travels from Santa Cruz, California to Boston and to Barcelona in search of the elusive gang of thieves responsible for the art theft. Shakespear also leaves behind his budding romance with Shiva, a successful video game developer, and ventures a little too close to the heat of his former flame Elaine, as he dodges bullets and bedroom encounters on his way to solving the mystery of "Who did the Butler?"