The S.S. Saint Louis spent several days anchored at Havana in 1939 while waiting for the Cuban authorities to allow 900 Jewish refugees from Germany into their country. Confident that a painting by Rembrandt that had belonged to their family since the 17th century — and which they had smuggled into the ship — would convince the Cubans to let them in, little Daniel Kaminsky and his uncle waited at the dock for their relatives to land. However their plan failed and the ship returned to Germany, taking away with her any chance of encounter. In 2007, with the crying of the painting in London, Daniel’s son, Elías, travels from the US to Havana in order to find out what happened to this artwork and to his family. Detective Mario Conde is the only one who can help him.