Transatlantic Media Associates (TMA)

In Budapest, two Americans live together. Adam, a former Manhattan prosecutor at work on his first novel, and Lisa, a cool hard-working financier who idolizes her boss (former Communist turned deal maker, Kovacs) as she tires of Adam's lifestyle. Cut to the subway, where two tough guys are pursuing Marta, a blond waif. She manages to surprise one of them in a hallway, dispatching him with a straight razor, and she barges into Adam's apartment to elude the other. She tells Adam why she is running, a story that implicates Kovacs, and she seeks Adam's help and affection. He takes her side, and slowly Lisa, Adam, Kovacs, Marta, and her pursuer draw toward a showdown.

Rich Hungarian-born orphan Katya Davidov commissions Jordan Kirkland to research her past starting from a photograph, showing her as a child next to an elusive Fabergé music box. Luckily experienced Yankee-Hungarian treasure hunter and womanizer Nick Rostov gently forces his help upon her, although Jordan stubbornly risks dealing with his dodgy competitor Gudrun Kuper and her ruthless employer, count Borodin.