Michael St. Pierre was once a highly skilled thief, an expert in antiquities and art objects—inventive, daring, and completely elusive. Now he has retired and is running a completely legal business. But he had to remember his former craft when he learned that his best friend Simon, hunting for an ancient map and an even more ancient staff, had gotten into serious trouble and was facing death. Michael does not yet know that this map and staff are the keys to the most secret place on Earth; a place where almost all the secrets of the universe are hidden. And that these keys are also hunted by other people - devoid of any moral principles; people who want to release original evil into this world...