Staten Island, New York. January 2012.
A quiet old builder named Roman Blum dies at 97. He leaves behind about $40 million.
He does not leave a will.
There is no wife and there are no children, no brothers or sisters, no cousins. The official now in charge of his estate can find no one at all.
So the search begins in his house. Officials go through every drawer and every file. They even bring in special equipment to look behind the walls.
Behind the walls, they find gold and jewelry.
They do not find a will.
Under New York law, if no heir turns up, the fortune goes to the state. But over the next ten years, people would come forward from around the world.
And one of them would bring a letter, dated 1987, said to leave everything to a woman he had loved before the war.