Summary

Chapter Seven is told from the perspective of Monika, who we learn is the daughter of Steffi, one of the German antique smugglers from the previous chapter. This chapter takes place in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy but before Claude’s accident. Monika lives in New York with her husband, Julian, a struggling artist who is having trouble finding a gallery that will display his experimental art. Monika is a regular at an eyebrow-waxing salon. She always gets her eyebrows shaped by a young black woman named Lynnette, who we discover, is none of other than Claude’s sister. Monika admires Lynette. She wishes she were that tough and strong in regards to her personal life.

Monika works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the field of provenance research. This mean she figures out which objects in the museum's collection have been stolen...