During the winter of 1972, a woman spends a single night with a young Chilean poet before he departs New York, leaving her his desk It is the only time they ever meet Two years later, he is arrested by Pinochet's secret police and never seen again Across the ocean, in the leafy suburbs of London, a man caring for his dying wife discovers a lock of hair among her papers that unravels a terrible secret In Jerusalem, an antiques dealer has spent a lifetime reassembling his father's study, plundered by the Nazis from Budapest in 1944 now only one item remains to be found Connecting these lives is a desk of many drawers that exerts a power over those who possess it or give it away