Meet Luc Simard, an archaeologist with a flawless academic career and a flawed history with women. When a book dating to the 14th-century is found after a fire in a monastery in the Perigord region of France, Luc's old friend Hugo calls him in to help decipher the mysterious illustrations that dot the coded manuscript. What Luc and Hugo do find in the manuscript is a map that leads them to a ten-chambered cave that is beyond their wildest expectations. But the manuscript contains a secret that someone is willing to kill to protect.