When a body is found beneath Michelangelo's dome, Gabriel Allon is summoned to secretly investigate the death that has been ruled a suicide, a case that brings about an unthinkable act of sabotage.

Now working for the Palatine Guard--a secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican--Meena Harper tries to win over her co-workers as well as her new partner Alaric Wulf while investigating a young priest recently assigned to the case.

To rescue kidnapped Tess Chaykin, FBI agent Sean Reilly infiltrates the Pope's massive Vatican Secret Archives of the Inquisition in search of a document known as the Fondo Templari, a secret history of the infamous Templars.

"September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. Gestapo boss Obersturmbannf�fuher Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. Hunger is widespread. Rumors fester. The war's outcome is far from certain. Diplomats, refugees, and escaped Allied prisoners flee for protection into Vatican City, at one fifth of a square mile the world's smallest state, a neutral, independent country within Rome. A small band of unlikely friends led by a courageous Irish priest is...