When a suspect in a museum heist is killed in a hit and run, Neal believes it is the work of an old adversary, Matthew Keller. Neal thinks Keller is using materials from the heist to counterfeit a bottle of wine owned by Benjamin Franklin. A supposedly impossible feat, and yet an anonymous seller has put a Franklin bottle up for auction at the prestigious auction house Weatherby's. Can it be a coincidence?
Peter and Neal trace the seller to an upscale wine house, Bin 903. Posing as a liaison for a wealthy client, Neal tours Bin 903's high security wine storage room and finds a message from Keller. He wants to meet, face to face. But Neal's meeting with Keller is less than convivial. Keller gives Neal an antique wine bottle, challenging him to make his own Franklin forgery. Keller wants to settle who is the best, once and for all.
Meanwhile, Peter is angry that Neal met with Keller by himself. Peter has done some digging of his own, and he thinks Keller is out to do more than settle an old score. The con man owes some serious money to the Russian mob, and selling the Franklin bottle is his last chance of squaring his debt. If the FBI wants Keller, they'd better find him before the mob does.
The Franklin bottle is the only thing linking Keller to the murder and the heist, but the FBI can't get their hands on it - unless there is a reason for Weatherby's to doubt its authenticity. If Neal and Mozzie can create their own Franklin bottle, good enough to call Keller's into doubt, Weatherby's will have no choice but to test both bottles and inevitably expose Keller's as a fake.
The problem is, in order to get into the materials they need, someone is going to have to pose as an interested client and steal them from the Bin 903 storage room. And as it turns out, that someone is going to have to be Peter...
