'The turning of the wheel by the tilling of the wheat'. With these cryptic words, a conspiracy is set into motion that threatens the new translation of the Bible ordered by King James I, and the lives of the scholars working on it. In 1605, at Cambridge University, one of the translators working on the new Bible is savagely murdered by unknown hands. Deacon Marbury, the man in charge of this group of scholars, seeks outside help to find the murderer, to protect the innocents and their work. But the people who offer to help are not who they claim to be and the man they send to Marbury - Brother Timon - has a secret past and much blood on his hands. But as the hidden killer continues his gruesome work and the body count among the scholars continues to rise, an even greater crisis looms as ancient and alarming secrets are revealed. Secrets dating back to the earliest days of Christianity that threaten the most basic of its closely held beliefs.