A young American in Italy loses her memory, her past and her family, but finds her path in life, which leads to a miracle reuniting her with her family.

SYNOPSIS:

Jewel of Rome follows the journey of JEWEL HARRIS, a brilliant young American attending summer session at Oxford University. On an excursion to Italy, she suffers a head injury during a robbery gone wrong and loses her memory but not her passion for ancient history.

By chance, a dazed Jewel encounters Alice Fernsby-Smythe, Oxford don now retired to Italy to write about the ancient world. Alice recognizes a rare book Jewel has with her as one she’d entrusted to a former colleague, and wants to know more about the girl worthy of borrowing such a special volume. On a whim, she offers Jewel a job as her research assistant, not realizing the girl knows ancient history but not her own name. En route to Alice’s home, they make a brief stop, and Jewel unwittingly becomes Alice’s accomplice in recovering a trove of stolen art.

Alice’s son, DUNCAN SMYTHE, ex-Interpol now freelance art recovery agent, visits his mother; he is suspicious of Jewel’s motives. Alice convinces him Jewel is innocent of anything nefarious - until he discovers her amnesia. Alice reaches out to her former colleague, seeking Jewel’s identity, but she’s off the grid, and Duncan’s Interpol contacts also come up empty.

Before they’ve come to trust each other, Jewel overhears a conversation suggesting she’d participated in a crime. Past trauma, which Jewel can not even remember yet is burned deep into her psyche, triggers an intense emotional reaction in her, and the arrival of Duncan’s wife, Carabinieri MAJOR TERESA CONTI, panics her into flight.

Teresa works with Jewel to calm her, and serves as a peacemaker between Jewel and Duncan. Alice and Duncan, with official documents, convince Jewel they are on the right side of the law, and that she had done nothing wrong. Her buried trauma motivates Jewel to become Duncan’s apprentice in art recovery while she continues to work as Alice’s researcher.

Jewel flourishes both as research assistant and recoverer of stolen art. She comes to understand who she wants to become even though she doesn’t know who she is.

Gradually, Jewel takes on more complex aspects of the art recovery business, and even runs a few operations on her own.

As Christmas approaches, Jewel is tasked with returning recovered treasures to a convent in Rome. The delivery does not go smoothly: Jewel encounters a villain whose loot she had recovered and he wants revenge. But in the end, Jewel not only succeeds in her task but regains her memory and is reunited with her family.