Inside the office of Cardinal DiGirolamo, the Vatican Secretary of State, Bishop Royce reports the results of an unscheduled inventory. Three chests from the Messianic Collection are missing from a secure vault located in the Vatican basement. Cardinal DiGirolamo believes the release of the contents of the chests could destroy the Catholic Church.Cardinal McKenna and Father Nardini brief Sergeant Daniel O'Brien from the Los Angeles Police Department Special Services Unit on the theft. O'Brien is asked to interview Richard Ambrose a wealthy industrialist living in Palm Springs who has a reputation for collecting old religious manuscripts.O'Brien seeks the help of an Ethiopian scholar who tells him the contents of the stolen chests include artifacts removed from the temple in Jerusalem by the Knights Templars. Shortly after their meeting, the scholar is found dead in his home and the detective is considered a suspect.During the course of his effort to prove his innocence, O'Brien discovers the man, who called himself Father Nardini, is a member of an ancient order called the Knights of St. Anthony and not a priest. O'Brien is pressured to keep a secret, while conflicting interests commit murder to suppress the truth.