Portrait of a Thief

Chapter 2 introduces Alex Huang, who grew up in New York City’s Chinatown where her family owns a restaurant. She dropped out of MIT to take a coding job with Google in Silicon Valley. She met Will through a dating app while at MIT. They decided they were better off as friends but have stayed close since. Will calls Alex and tells her about the robbery at the Sackler Museum. She hacks into the museum’s security system and deletes the footage of him stealing the jade tiger. Will tells her about the business card, which he calls an invitation, and asks her to join him in answering it; she agrees.

After calling the number on the China Poly business card, Will receives a text message with a link to an airline reservation—five first-class tickets to Beijing in his name. The flight is a week away. Will calls his sister Irene, and she proves more cautious than him, opting to research China Poly. Despite her uncertainty, she agrees to accompany her brother. She tells Will that there’s a driver at Duke he should meet.

Chapter 4 introduces Lily Wu as she wins a street race in Durham, North Carolina, where she attends Duke University; she grew up in Galveston, Texas. After the race, she finds Will waiting for her. She reveals they’ve met before, when she and her roommate Irene moved in together. Will tells Lily that he came to Durham to visit Irene, not realizing she was in New York for an interview. They talk and get to know each other. Then, Will admits he actually came to Durham to see Lily.

Chapter 5 introduces Daniel Liang, who’s been best friends with Will and Irene for 10 years. Irene invited him to Beijing, and he can never refuse her. He joins his friends at the penthouse of Wang Yuling, chief executive officer (CEO) of China’s most secretive company, China Poly. Yuling tells the group about the Old Summer Palace, built during the Qing Dynasty and destroyed by British and French forces. Among the looted items were 12 bronze fountainheads depicting the Chinese zodiac. Seven are back in China’s possession, but five remain in Western museums. Yuling wants to hire the group to steal them back.

Daniel wants to leave, as his father Yaoxian is an investigator for the FBI’s Art Crime Team. He’s preparing for medical school interviews and has plenty to lose, but out of loyalty to Will, he’s convinced to stay.

When Alex learns China Poly will pay the crew $50 million for the heist, she realizes all she can do with the money: She can support her family and her own dreams. She’s felt unfulfilled in her job at Google and wants change. The crew makes a pros and cons list to decide whether or not to take the job. Irene and Daniel are against it, but Alex wants to do it, and believes they can.

Chapter 7 reveals Irene Chen’s background and perspective. She’s spent her whole life doing everything right, but feels she never measures up to her brother. A junior at Duke, she studies politics and plans to attend law school, having been offered a summer internship at a prestigious consulting firm. Irene and Daniel share their thoughts about the heist over breakfast. She knows his fractured relationship with his father is a factor, and also knows he’s in love with her. The crew decides to visit the Poly Art Museum, where the seven reclaimed fountainheads are displayed. They arrive as the museum is closing, but Irene convinces the guard to let them enter.

The museum lights suddenly go out. Will reveals he arranged a trial theft with Yuling, to prove the crew is capable. Daniel picks the lock of a display case. Holding the fountainhead, Will feels a sense of victory, but Lily lists all the things that could go wrong in a real heist. In the end, Will, Lily, and Alex want to do the job, and Daniel and Irene give in.

Will and Lily visit the ruins of the Old Summer Palace the next morning. Will shows Lily around and learns she’s never been to China. The two begin flirting, but Will stops when he considers how important this job is to him and realizes he doesn’t need complications.

At the Beijing airport, Irene tells Alex that the crew doesn’t need her and she shouldn’t be there. She thinks of Alex as merely a past girlfriend of Will’s and dismisses her as anything else. Though Irene is adept at getting people to like her, she doesn’t care enough to make an effort with Alex. On the plane, Irene and Lily discuss how the heist will change their futures, though they’re divided on whether or not it’s a good thing.

Back at Duke, Lily reflects on her time in Beijing and realizes she should be afraid of the risks she’s taking, but isn’t. The crew meets over Zoom to plan the heist. Their research strategy includes watching popular heist films and reading about historical art thefts. Alex gives them remote access to an encrypted file system where they store their notes. Irene asks Lily what she thinks of Will. Lily senses Irene’s worry that he’ll come between them and denies any attraction.

Researching historical art thefts, Will learns most museum thefts were smash-and-grab jobs, rather than the elaborate schemes portrayed in movies. Drottningholm Palace in Stockholm, Sweden, will be the crew’s first target. As the assumed leader, Will assigns classic heist archetypes: Alex will handle museum security, Daniel will get the fountainhead out of its protective case, Lily will plan their getaway, and Irene will handle their alibis.