After a very dark bi-polar episode Jack Ballard sits on his hospital bed in the NYU psyche ward writing the screenplay that will make him a star. That same night Jack is visited by the ghost of Vincent Van Gogh, who tells Jack to forget the crap he is working on and write the story that Vincent is about to tell him. A story about Vincent’s murder and a missing painting that could be the most valuable painting to ever hit an auction block.
Jack leaves the hospital to go to China to manager a bankrupt stone company for his shady brother who wants to submit bids on construction projects for the buildings for the up-coming Olympic games.
Vincent still makes his daily visits telling Jack what a coincidence, the missing painting is in Shanghai.
That night Warhol, Pollock and Picasso, appear in Time Square with orders to bring Vinnie back. They have two weeks. If Vinnie is not found or rescued, Vinnie and his entire life will vanish from art history.
Before jack and Vinnie leave. Jack again contacts his ext wife, Jill owes him big money. He threatens to spread the word via the press that she sued George Rose, now running for governor for sexual harassment. An out of court settlement of 6 million.
Days after working with the lovely Chinese translator and flash back nurse at NYM, Jack thinks he is now being followed by two hitman his wife has hired to take him out.
Vincent’s story unravels, the quest for the missing painting, as Jack “Quixote” and Vincent Panza, his two favorite characters in literature continues, as Jacks search for his windmill, escalates into a dark, humorous and dangerous adventure.
Is Jack actually partaking in this dark comedy, imagining bits and pieces as he and Vincent stalk the art circles of shanghai, or is Jack still seated at his hospital bed with laptop in hand writing his great screenplay?
Tess Douglas, a CNN reporter, attempts to put her career back on track doing a story on the endangered Bengal tiger of India. Together again with her cameraman and one time lover, Dylan Jennings, Tess finds herself involved in the search and rescue of a group of young girls who have been kidnapped and sold into the skin trade. In their attempt to find the girls and expose this complex network of sex, money and violence, Dylan discovers that Tess’s new lover, James Guardian, may be the network’s ringleader. Tess and Dylan risk everything including their lives in their investigation and rescue attempt of these innocent young girls.
Along with the human refuse of the Civil War, desperadoes, con men, Indians and a lovely young Asian female, Jade, the daughter of a murdered railroad worker, Jackson Hope and Benjamin Maddox revitalize their egocentric ambitions for fame and fortune. Intellectuals at the gates to the new West, whose physical and emotional war takes on the secretive, corrupt, often humorous and violent machinations that underlie their scientific and romantic discoveries.
As day breaks, Sara is discovered by one of the shows animal attendants, a Negro Baseball League want-to-be, Lincoln Walker. Sara claims to be a prostitute and is taken in by DAVID RIPLEY, the (30) year old owner ¾ who, as the story unfolds, opium addiction and character seem to reference a much different social milieu.
Knowing that Sara is the only witness to her brother's murder, Pinkerton agent BEN WILLIS follows the road show train heading south; the next stop, Baton Rouge.
Two weeks have gone by and David and Sara have initiated a physical relationship intertwined with his opium highs and her desperate need for protection. The man whom Sara really desires to get closer to, a desire that could get them both killed, is the Negro ballplayer, Lincoln Walker.
After arriving in Baton Rouge, a representative from the Dominican Republic, VICTOR AYBAR, has arrived to look for Negro League ball players to pay to come and play for the ruthless dictator, President Trujillo's 'Black Dragons' in the Domiciling World Series. One of the hoped for players is the young phenom Lincoln Walker.
Sara quickly and somewhat reluctantly inherits the role as the exotic rider of Elephant Mary, 'the Queen of the Nile' and the largest African elephant in captivity.
Sara finally confides to Lincoln the details of her brother's murder. Willis is within days of making sure that Sara's story goes no further than Lincoln's comforting ear. A few nights later Sara angrily deals with David's addiction by using his last grams of opium to ease the pain of Elephant Mary's abscessed tooth.
Following a night of passion between Sara and Lincoln, they both arrive late for the early morning parade through downtown Baton Rouge. Halfway through the parade, Sara and Lincoln catch up with Elephant Mary, only to witness the pride of the community, (19) year old Tyler Reynolds, taking a dare from a friend, jump from the sidewalk canopy on to the elephant's back; seconds later being crushed to death after tumbling into the elephant's path.
That night, MAYOR CLARK, who is willing to do anything to be the next governor of Louisiana, decides that this bizarre tragedy is just the front page headlines he needs. Tyler Reynolds, the pride of the white population of Baton Rouge, who could hit a baseball over 500 feet; killed by this giant behemoth; crushed by the foot of this monster elephant that was supposed to be ridden by a mysterious young female Jewish runaway, who is being hunted for, by Pinkerton Agent Willis, on the charge of murder. And escorted by the animals Negro attendant, Lincoln Walker, the only male around black or white that measured up to Reynolds talent on the ball-field.
The following morning, Sara, Elephant Mary and Lincoln are arrested and charged with murder; a story that makes the headlines of every newspaper east of the Mississippi.
The trial is in just two days. David must finally deal with his own personal nightmare, resurrecting a disputed past immersed in the upper class of New York City, a prestigious family law firm, a failed legal career and banishment by his father; the only one person both capable and willing to save these three lives as a jury trial, conviction, public hanging and a daring escape attempt await the three wrongfully accused.
Alan Shore spends his nights in a seedy hotel and a KTV Club in the out-skirts of Laizhou China. His days are spent as the point man taking a small bankrupt Chinese Stone company and putting it on the map. Back In New York, Lawrence Brody the company CEO, a bon vivant genius swindler with no conscience has set up a new marketing plan stating that ‘Jade Dragon’ will be the chief stone supplier for the 47 venues under construction for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
One of the reasons Jack left and took this position in China, was that he was in the middle of a nasty divorce. Alan threatened to spill his guts about Linda’s affair with financier and now gubernatorial candidate, George Rose, an affair that she turned into a possible sexual harassment suit, settled out of court for 6 million.
Alan was the one American in Laizhou the man who spread the word, all with the intension of turning around a bankrupt stone company and make it look like the new major player in the Olympics; press releases and a new web-site claiming $900,000 million in potential stone sales for the Bejing Olympics construction venues.
Due to Alan’s marketing magic Jade Dragon’s stock spiked from $12.50 to $52.00 a share in a week. Unfortunately Alan and his female translator the lovely Cai, who told him what really went on in the behind the door meetings, has finally realized that Jade Dragon may be nothing but a stock scam; nothing has been purchased, nothing is owned and there is no real intension of supplying any stone.
The American partners, David Brody and Doug Kelly, along with old-man Wang, the Chinese owner are about to sell 800,000 shares of stock; do the math. Alan is the only player, the one who created the package, made the proposed sales, the name everyone knows. It’s time to stop telling and selling the lies, the lies that are keeping him alive.
Linda the soon to be x wife, with the wise-guy connections in Eastern Europe, had threatened to kill him more than once and that was before he threatened to send an e-mail exposing her to an A list that included the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.
Sam thinks he has stolen containers of Ecstasy. Sam’s LA friends think Sam’s move up the ladder from DVD’s to “X” should be shared; they want a piece if it and maybe the whole pie. But Harry has them all fooled and is the only player who knows what is really in the containers that Sam has stolen. For Harry, with the help of the young Jade, this is a drug deal that could change and maybe save the lives of thousands. Sam wants the big score and is about to screw Harry and his high ideals. Sam’s LA black market friends are about ready to get rid of all of them, including the girls, turning this into a very bad and possibly very deadly deal.