The pope is dead and Cardinals are arriving at the Vatican to open a conclave to pick his successor, but one prince of the Church has fled Rome to Malta in search of a document that dates back to the 4th century and Constantine the Great. Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is at Lake Como, Italy, on the trail of legendary letters between Winston Churchill and Benito Mussolini, letters that disappeared in 1945 and could now re-write world history. But someone else is after them too and, when Malone obtains then loses them, he's plunged into a hunt involving the Knights of Malta, a 900-year-old organization rife with division and currently being steered by the Secreti, a sect within determined to affect the coming conclave. With the help of Luke Daniels, Malone races both the Knights and the clock, across Italy to Malta, and finally to Rome, behind the walls of the Vatican, where the election of the next pope hangs in the balance.