The death of a priest is met with suspicion by his brother Thomas, who knows that his sibling died while researching Christian symbols. But Thomas and curator Deborah Miller aren't alone in retracing the priest's final steps. They're followed by fanatics desperate to hide the secret stumbled upon by Thomas' brother-and willing to kill to keep it buried forever.

A dead woman. A literary treasure. A dangerous quest. Thomas Knight, the protagonist from On the Fifth Day, returns and is faced with a centuries-old mystery surrounding a long-lost—and now priceless—Shakespearean play. To find it, Thomas will have to enter a story which drags loss and death after it like one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, a story bound to time and all it devours.