It is the year 1307, and the ancient Order of the Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon is in danger. The King of France and Pope Clement V are scheming to appropriate the most sacred and dangerous of all secrets held by the Order ? a secret encrypted on the ring seal of Jacques de Molay, the Templar Grand Master. To save the Order, Jacques must entrust the ring to one man, a man unknown to history, a man whose task will be to take the seal through a world in ruins and out to the farthest edges of Europe. The man in question becomes embroiled in a Machiavellian world of spies, traps, the Inquisition and outward enemies, only finally to come face to face with the most cunning and terrible foe of all: the enemy that hides within. So who is this man? And what is the secret he carries? Nearly 700 years later, the answer comes by way of a writer who arrives at Lockenhaus Castle to research a book on the Templars. Together the writer and an old local woman unlock the secret of the seal and come to understand the entangled destiny that binds them.