In 1923, the sudden death of a mysterious loner in a seedy Los Angeles hotel leads an eager newspaper reporter to unearth a stunning fortune. His stories trigger a race to claim heirship, bringing hundreds of false claimants out of the woodwork. A young lawyer, Reid Foster, teams with a forensic genealogist to track down the rightful heirs in Paris and Provence. The lawyer - strait-laced and puritanical - reluctantly joins the profligate genealogist to find relatives in post-WWI France, where they encounter characters ranging from grateful to greedy and sympathetic to seductive. Their inquest culminates in Los Angeles with a contentious trial that tests their ingenuity and persistence.