Ransom

Julian Isherwood, a prominent London art dealer, learns from his friend Niles Dunham, a curator at the National Gallery, that a planned Botticelli exhibition has been canceled for lack of funding. Determined to save the exhibition, Julian decides to host a high-profile fundraiser. He secures a grand estate in Devon as the venue and, with the help of his partner, Sarah Bancroft (a former CIA operative), persuades the world-renowned art restorer Gabriel Allon to be the star attraction. Gabriel, a retired Israeli intelligence operative, now lives a quiet life in Cornwall with his wife, Chiara, and their children. He reluctantly agrees to participate in a staged interview with Sarah at the event, despite reservations.

Gabriel and Chiara arrive at the fundraiser at Wickham House, the Devon estate of billionaire Edward Knight. The hosts, Edward and his wife Alice Winter, are conspicuously absent at first. Gabriel mingles with guests from the London art world, including Julian and Sarah. Edward eventually appears alone, explaining that Alice is running late. He takes a tense phone call and later, after his personal assistant, Liam Higgins, whispers something to him, abruptly leaves the dinner, announcing that Alice has taken ill. Despite the hosts’ absence, the event is a great success, raising nearly £10 million for the Botticelli exhibition.

At his secluded home in Gwennap Head, Cornwall, Gabriel spends the days following the fundraiser restoring a valuable painting by Bernardo Bellotto. On Friday afternoon, Edward Knight arrives unannounced, initially claiming he is there to inquire about purchasing the Bellotto. After a brief tour of the studio, Knight abandons the pretense and reveals the true purpose of his visit: His wife, Alice, has disappeared.

While walking with Gabriel along the Cornish coast, Edward Knight recounts the details of Alice’s disappearance. On the day she was meant to fly back from Ibiza, she never arrived at the airport. Knight learned from her friend Sophie that Alice had not returned to their rented villa the previous night. Spanish police were alerted and found her rental car capsized at the bottom of a rocky ravine. Her Hermès sandal was discovered on a beach on the eastern side of the island. Knight reveals that Alice withdrew €2,000 in cash from an ATM shortly before she vanished and bought a white baseball hat from Louis Vuitton. He asks Gabriel to travel to Ibiza to discreetly investigate the matter on his behalf.

Gabriel agrees to investigate Alice’s disappearance but insists on a 24-hour delay before leaving for Ibiza. Knight ensures Gabriel’s full cooperation by offering to buy the Bellotto painting Gabriel is restoring for $20 million. Knight arranges for his private helicopter to take Gabriel to Luton, where he will board the company jet for Ibiza. Later, Gabriel and his wife, Chiara, research Knight, a real estate magnate, and find his business dealings to be vast and opaque. Chiara is suspicious of Knight and suggests that Phoebe Chadwick’s abrupt departure from Ibiza after arguing with Alice could be significant.

The following morning, Gabriel meets with his long-time friend Detective Inspector Timothy Peel of the Devon and Cornwall Police. Peel informs Gabriel that while Edward Knight has no criminal record, he has been investigated for tax evasion. More significantly, Peel reveals that four months earlier, Alice crashed her Aston Martin near Wickham House. The attending physician suspected she had been under the influence at the time, as a breathalyzer administered four hours after the accident registered her at just under the legal alcohol limit. Peel, who was the investigating officer, was ordered by his superiors to expunge all records of the incident, a clear abuse of Knight’s influence.

As Gabriel prepares to leave for Ibiza, Edward Knight’s personal assistant, Liam Higgins, meets him at the airport. On the helicopter flight to Luton, Higgins provides Gabriel with Alice’s recent credit card charges, emails, and text messages retrieved from her personal computer, as well as an attaché case containing €500,000. 

Gabriel continued from Luton to Ibiza alone. At his hotel, he senses he is under surveillance and receives a message that a police inspector is waiting for him. Before leaving his suite, Gabriel places a small slip of paper in the doorjamb as a telltale to detect unauthorized entry.

In the hotel lobby, Gabriel meets Inspector Eva Aragón of the Policía Nacional, who is already aware of his intelligence background and has been approved to share information about the abduction with him. She shares the official police file on Alice’s disappearance, confirming the details Knight provided. The prevailing police theory is that Alice was the victim of a robbery by professional thieves, and her body was likely disposed of at sea. Gabriel remains skeptical of this theory and insists that Aragón take him to the relevant crime scenes immediately, despite the late hour.

Inspector Aragón drives Gabriel to the ravine, where he concludes that Alice’s car was deliberately pushed over the edge. Next, they visit the sealed villa. Inside Alice’s bedroom, Gabriel examines her belongings. He notes that she already owned a baseball cap, making her recent purchase of the white Louis Vuitton cap seem strange. Gabriel tells an unconvinced Aragón that he believes Alice was professionally kidnapped, not robbed.

Over dinner, Gabriel argues his kidnapping theory, suggesting that the professional kidnappers haven’t been in touch because they are deliberately waiting to make a ransom demand to increase Edward Knight’s desperation. Inspector Aragón remains skeptical but agrees to help him re-examine all surveillance footage from Alice’s stay. They spend the next day reviewing videos from the restaurants and nightclubs she visited but find no clear leads. Their focus then shifts to a photo Alice posted on Instagram from a scenic overlook called Es Vedrà, taken on the morning she claimed to be “sightseeing” after her fight with Phoebe.

Gabriel flies to London and meets a frantic Edward Knight, who tells him that the kidnappers sent an email asking for a secure phone number to begin communications. Insisting on full control, Gabriel demands complete transparency about Knight’s business affairs and potential enemies. He sends the kidnappers the number for a landline in Knight’s conference room. That evening, they call and, using a computer-generated female voice, demand to speak directly with Knight, but Gabriel refuses. He tells them he will not negotiate until they provide “proof of life”: a photograph of Alice holding a current issue of The Economist.

Gabriel establishes a base of operations in Knight’s house in London. He learns from Knight that Alice’s friend from Cambridge, Peter Hoffmann, is also Knight’s longtime personal banker in Zurich. Gabriel’s attempt to trace the kidnappers’ phone fails. At 8:05 pm, an hour before his deadline expires, the kidnappers call with instructions for retrieving the proof-of-life photograph.

Gabriel flies to Brussels and retrieves a USB drive from a park. It contains a photo of Alice Winter—wearing the same white blouse she had on the day of her disappearance—holding the current issue of The Economist, with a bruised cheek and dark circles under her eyes. Recognizing the potential for a sophisticated deepfake, Gabriel summons his Danish friend Ingrid Johansen, an expert hacker and professional thief, to London for the analysis. Ingrid confirms Gabriel’s initial assessment that the photo is authentic. That evening, Gabriel takes the next call from the kidnappers, who demand a ransom of $1 billion.

While waiting for the next negotiation call from the kidnappers, Gabriel and Ingrid meet with Knight and Higgins at the Knight Group’s office. At 8:57 pm, the kidnappers call again. Gabriel listens to their detailed demands, officially beginning the negotiation for Alice’s life.

The ransom negotiations unfold over 12 tense days, conducted entirely through calls. Gabriel employs classic delay tactics, systematically whittling down the ransom demand from $1 billion. He forces the kidnappers to provide a second proof-of-life photo, which he and Ingrid again retrieve from the Bois de Boulogne. The standoff intensifies as the kidnappers’ demand drops to $600 million and Gabriel’s offer holds at $300 million. After Gabriel refuses to budge, the line goes silent for 48 hours. Then, in the middle of the night, the burner phone rings. This time, the voice is not automated; it is Alice herself.

Alice speaks to Gabriel on the phone, confirming her identity by answering specific questions about her trip to Ibiza. She begs him to convince Edward to pay whatever the kidnappers want, stating she cannot endure her captivity any longer. Immediately after her call, the automated voice returns. Sensing the kidnappers have reached their breaking point, Gabriel makes a final, take-it-or-leave-it offer of $500 million. They accept instantly. Gabriel informs Edward Knight of the agreement. The payment will be made via wire transfer, and Knight asks Gabriel to go to Zurich to coordinate the funds with his banker, Peter Hoffmann.

Gabriel and Ingrid fly to Zurich. Gabriel meets with Hoffmann, who confirms he can liquidate the necessary $500 million from Edward Knight’s accounts but will require Knight’s direct authorization for the final transfer. That evening, the kidnappers call with instructions to wire the money to an account at the notoriously corrupt CyproBank of Nicosia. Gabriel refuses, reiterating his “no Alice, no money” stance (124). The kidnappers direct him to travel by train to Munich, and Gabriel instructs Ingrid to begin hacking into CyproBank’s network.

Gabriel travels to Munich, fending off calls from an increasingly agitated Edward Knight, who demands the wire transfer details so he can pay the ransom immediately. Gabriel refuses, knowing he needs the money as leverage and that Ingrid needs more time to penetrate CyproBank’s systems. Upon Gabriel’s arrival in Munich, the kidnappers instruct him to take the next train to Salzburg. He informs Ingrid, who is making progress but is still not inside the bank’s network. He boards the train, arriving in Salzburg in the early hours of the morning.

In Salzburg, Gabriel follows the kidnappers’ directions to a waiting car. He drives south onto a remote mountain road, where he is instructed to get into the trunk. He is driven to an isolated house, hooded, and brought into a kitchen with four masked men. The leader, communicating through the automated voice software on a laptop, orders Gabriel to call Hoffmann and authorize the $500 million transfer. When Gabriel refuses, he is brutally beaten, bound with duct tape, and placed back in his chair. 

The leader then uses Gabriel’s iPhone to call Edward Knight and plays a threat—composed on the laptop and read aloud in real time by the automated voice—to kill both Alice and Gabriel, reciting the account and routing numbers. Knight capitulates immediately, promising to send the money. Gabriel is drugged with ketamine and thrown back into the car’s trunk, convinced he has only an hour to live.