Patty Doyle holds the secret to eternal life, but it may only bring her an early death. Patty is a cataloguer of rare manuscripts, working on part of a newly discovered journal of a 14th Century alchemist. Just another dull day on the job. But after mentioning it in her blog she gets to the office to find everyone brutally murdered. Now she's on the run with the incomplete journal, trying to find the rest, pursued by a killer who wants the secret of eternal life it contains. The quest leads her halfway across the world to the castles and misty history of Scotland. She thinks she's looking for a manuscript. But the things she learns on the journey all point to the 14th Century alchemist himself, a man who is still very much alive.