Inspired by the largest antique clock theft ever committed — a haul so rare and so recognisable it could never be sold, and so it simply vanished for decades. The man behind it was no ordinary thief: a master of disguise, addicted to the thrill of the danger, who turned the crime into a game only he knew the rules to.

What followed was a four-decade standoff that spanned continents — drawing in Interpol and the Mossad — between the thief and the detective who gave his career to catching him, the two of them rising and falling apart in step across the world. And through all of it stood one woman who loved the thief in spite of every fault, every alias, and every year on the run, until the surprising end proving the truth could be stranger than fiction.