Walter Winch

In 1914, the rulers of Europe, many of them still believing they live in a 19th century world, are lurching toward World War One--the real beginning of the 20th century and all that followed. But are these monarchs and members of Europe's political elite, in fact, being manipulated by dark, fanatical forces determined to plunge the continent into total war in order to bring about a dream that goes back hundreds of years?

Yance Adams, an American employed by a millionaire art collector in London, is sent to Egypt to pick up a religious icon that at one time was kept in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, Turkey, the city that was founded by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century. It is in Egypt however, that Yance is pulled into a vortex of conspiracy, murder and international intrigue that eventually takes him back to England and a confrontation with the malevolence hovering over Europe, as the world moves closer to war.