During a routine dismantling of an antique book's binding, Israeli Archaeologist Professor Yoshua Rosenberg discovers the cover page of the Hoshiyan Chronicles. On the cover page is the name of the place where the work was written. This is the professor's first solid clue in his quest for the legendary king, The Light of Justice.
Following the professor's Internet posting, the Pope is notified of the find by Vatican security. He ventures into an underground vault and finds an ancient directive to destroy all copies of the Hoshiyan Chronicles.
While researching archives in Granada, the professor finds his next clue, a former synagogue converted to a now vacant chapel. Professor Rosenberg negotiates to buy it. While at the land registry office in Cordoba to transfer the deed of ownership, a suspicious briefcase catches the professor's eye. The professor saves many lives; the briefcase contained a bomb planted by the Basque Separatist movement. The Spanish press declares Yoshua a hero.
Upon transfer of ownership, a local priest provides the professor with an old set of blueprints for the chapel. While examining them, the professor discovers that the outer dimensions exceed those of the interior, indicating an additional room that was sealed off.
When the professor and his team breach the walls, they discover a monstrous horror: 46 tortured mummies, the remnant of a Jewish community tortured by the Inquisition and sealed behind a double brick wall. Thus, their place of worship became their tomb. Eight books were found with the bodies.
Yoshua realizes his discovery will cause the Spanish government humiliation on an international scale; he fully expects the authorities to shut down Yoshua's excavation project and confiscate everything.
Financer of the project, Dr. Simon Jamerson, suggests they should grab the books and escape to Gibraltar. Yoshua argues that such an action would incite the authorities to 'disappear' the bodies forever. Providing a proper burial for the martyrs morally outweighs whatever they might find in the books.
Fueled by Papal encouragement, the Spanish government arrests the Israeli archeologists and confiscates all their finds. The Deputy Minister of Interior accuses Professor Rosenberg of planting the bomb in Cordoba and arrests him and part of his team on charges of terrorism.
Concerned about the valuable treasures found at Nido de Aguila, the Israeli Ambassador deploys the Mossad to watch over them. The Mossad reveals a plot by the Vatican black ops unit to destroy all the evidence from the site. The Mossad agents lay an ambush in the medical examiner's office and catch the Papal agents red-handed with accelerants. The fire at the morgue was meant as a distraction from the main mission, the destruction of the books.
The final chapter of the book finds the Israel scientists in solitary confinement in Madrid's Valdemoro prison, which sits amid the arid badlands south of Madrid. The final scene is of deep reflection and spiritual growth of the three and Professor Rosenberg's decision to start planning an escape