[Preview of a Work in Progress; feedback welcome!] Winter, 1949, upstate New York. Four boys (James, Theo, Scottie, and Lewis) live in the cluttered attic of an old dormitory at Bramwood, a crumbling ivory university buried in ivy. They have ambition and art; all that's missing is the money. In walks Lucie with her romantic ideals, treacherous wit, and surprising air of serendipity. Happening upon a mysterious journal filled with a wondrous tale of forgery and fortune, rapacity runs rampant among the artists. Nothing is more deadly than desperation.