A man looking for a Madonna, hoping she comes with salvation

Based on references found in some old letters, Lynch has spent the last 10 years trying to track down an uncataloged Madonna painting by Venetian Renaissance artist Giovanni Bellini. It is supposedly the painter's last, luminous Madonna which hasn't been seen in centuries. When Lynch traces the painting to a crumbling manor house in England, he thinks he may have found a path to reclaiming his career and his life.

Therein lies the setup for "The Bellini Madonna," which reads as part mystery, part historical fiction, part character study. The plot begins with Lynch ingratiating himself to Maddalena Roper, owner of the ramshackle Mawle House. He wrangles an invitation for a prolonged visit under the guise of cataloging the manor's extensive but mediocre painting collection, not mentioning the valuable lost Bellini that is his real aim. He then begins his furtive quest to uncover the painting, apparently only two steps ahead of (or behind) another art historian. As Lynch prowls the house, he discovers a diary from the 1880s of Maddalena's grandfather, James Roper, which gradually reveals some of the Roper family's peculiar past, with implications for its curious, tangled present as well.

Though Maddalena is in Italy, her daughter, the seemingly vacuous, sexually tempting Anna, is very much present, along with a 10-year-old relative named Vicky and the hulking, macho gardener, Harry. They are a distinctly odd bunch, but as the days pass, Lynch finds himself under Anna's thrall as she ministers to his "irritable heart" and keeps him supplied with grappa. Gradually, Lynch starts to suspect that the Ropers might be setting him up, might actually know the estate holds the secret to the long lost painting, and are hoping he will discover it for them. Lynch wonders whether the "tipples Anna so readily offered" contained only grappa or some other substance to keep him slightly dazed, more prisoner than guest.