Paul LaBont is an up-and-coming artist who wants nothing more than to break free from the shadow of his father, the classical painter Victor LaBont.

Vincent LaBont is a world-class artist who attributes his creative ability to a chair he owns-a chair that he claims was created and empowered by Leonardo Da Vinci. When his home catches fire, Vincent is severely burned trying to rescue the chair. Later he realizes the chair was stolen before the house burned.

Distraught that his creative abilities no longer exist without the chair, Vincent’s son Paul, a painter himself, sets out for Italy where they suspect the chair has been taken. While Vincent contemplates his life in California without the chair, Paul grapples with his skepticism: Is Leonardo’s chair real? Does it possess ancient power to create? Ultimately he, too, is seduced by the idea of the chair’s power. Will he use the chair to recreate one of Leonardo’s paintings? Will he become another anonymous copyist?