The year is 1933. For the past six years Marion Bailey has lived peacefully outside the control of British Intelligence. She has been teaching medieval Islamic literature at Durham University but her life is again complicated when her estranged husband and political nemesis, Jeffrey Wilcox, shows up with a shocking statement. Her name has been linked to a number of highly suspicious deaths in the Middle East. To clear her reputation and return to her quiet life, she must begin a journey to Italy, Libya, and Iraq in search of a fabled map that disappeared back in the 12th Century.