After a brutal murder in the Doge's Palace in Venice, Asian art buyer San Lee must decipher Doctor Chan's cryptic last words to uncover a secret that has haunted the Church for over 500 years. San Lee is hired by China's Ministry of State Security to buy a politically sensitive sculpture at an auction in Venice, a job San desperately needs to complete to repay his father's debts. But when the sculpture's owner Doctor Chan is murdered, and the sculpture stolen, San is blamed and pursued by the Ministry's agents. Worse still, San becomes the target of a conspiracy that for centuries has sought to destroy all record of the secret that Doctor Chan has discovered, and that if exposed, could rewrite history and shake the Church to its foundations. Chased through Venice, Rome and Florence, San and Doctor Chan's assistant Su-Lin must decipher Doctor Chan's cryptic last words and recover the sculpture before the Ministry's agents or the Inquisition captures them first.