When a young woman discovers a hidden photograph in the family album of a murdered WWII survivor, she becomes the target of a decades-old conspiracy linking Nazi fugitives, a secret escape flight from Germany, and a deadly cover-up that kills to protect its secrets. (Black List / Nicoll Fellowship coverage simulation 9+)

SYNOPSIS:

Lexi Balestra, is a compassionate young volunteer at an assisted living facility. She arrives for her weekly visit and learns that her favorite resident, Markus Lange, has died. He was a 98-year-old WWII survivor with a secret past. She notices a faint impression on his pillow and suspects foul play. The FBI steps in, and Lexi’s ordinary life takes a sudden tilt into a shadowy world of buried secrets.

Lexi inherits a worn family photo album Markus left behind. She discovers a hidden photograph sealed within its lining. The photo shows two men in front of a colossal seaplane marked with Nazi insignia. One man is Markus; the other, his identical twin. The plane may have spirited high-ranking Nazis out of Europe during the final days of the war.

Lexi’s curiosity draws her into a dangerous web of secrets and Nazi money. She gets help from a disciplined FBI investigator, and a professor at NYU with a clandestine past. The FBI agent reveals Markus came to America as part of Operation Paperclip. Lexi digs deeper, and finds that Markus’s brother, declared dead in 1945, may have survived.

An intruder ransacks Lexi’s apartment, and she realizes she is now prey. The FBI agent struggles to protect her after a brutal attack. She battles emotional and existential threats as she hunts down her friend’s killer. Markus Lange's brother comes to bury him, and reveals the Nazi conspiracy to the FBI. Lexi finds strengths and capabilities she wasn't aware of. She melds with the team to alert international law enforcement agencies.

Lexi and the FBI team continue to unravel the decades long conspiracy. Her attacker accepts a plea bargain, but names her antagonist. She and the FBI team work long hours to track him across the globe so an FBI fly-team can take him into custody. Lexi accepts an invitation to join the agency as an analyst. She begins a personal relationship with her protector. Lexi realizes she may have found out what she is going to do with her life.

DARK LATITUDE