Former intelligence officer and now successful lawyer Lang Reilly is grieving the death of his sister, who died in an explosion in Paris. Finding out the circumstances of her death, he learns that the day before the tragedy, her sister bought a copy of a painting by the artist Poussin with a strange Latin inscription, and even managed to send it to the States. Reilly takes the painting home... and it is promptly stolen from his apartment. Lang understands: the death of his sister is closely connected with this picture. Moreover: the canvas keeps some terrible secret. Lang's guesses grow stronger as people who know anything about the painting begin to die. Reilly is not used to retreating and intends to get to the bottom of the mystery at any cost. But he has yet to learn that the price for possessing ancient secrets may be too high...