In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, Jeff Cook runs into a former classmate who only vagues remember him. Jeff reveals that he once resuscitated a drowning man, and, after that traumatic morning on the beach was compelled to learn more about the man whose life he had saved. Discovering that the man is renowned art dealer Francis Arsenault, Jeff begins to surreptitiously visit his Beverly Hills gallery. Although Francis does not seem to recognize him as the man who saved his life, he takes the younger man under his wing, initiating him into his world, where knowledge, taste, and access are currency; a world where value is constantly shifting and calling into question what is real, and what matters.