Jack Gracy, a former security guard at the American Embassy in Russia, has shown up uninvited to a party at the embassy in the former Soviet Republic of Bazrhikistan, where his estranged girlfriend is working. As the two are talking upstairs, a group of terrorists disguised as caterers burst in and take all the guests downstairs hostage. The terrorists are threatening to launch nuclear missles at America if their demands are not met, but they haven't planned on Jack being their to spoil the party.

At the height of his success in 1630 Amsterdam, Rembrandt takes on a Jewish studio apprentice, Samuel.

In 1990, Alan Levy, Editor in Chief of the Prague Post, proclaimed that Prague was the "Left Bank of the 90s," -- the new European haven for American artists. Levy's herald rang out like a clarion call, summoning expatriate North Americans from Nova Scotia to the Golden Gate.