When a world renowned scientist is found brutally murdered in a Swiss research facility, a Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared onto the dead man's chest. His baffling conclusion: it is the work of the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood presumed extinct for nearly four hundred years reborn to continue their bitter vendetta against their sworn enemy, the Catholic church. In Rome, the college of cardinals assembles to elect a new pope. Yet somewhere within the walls of the Vaitcan, an unstoppable bomb of terrifying power relentlessly counts down to oblivion. While the minutes tick away. Langdon joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and mysterious Italian scientist, to decipher the labyrinthine trail of ancient symbols that snakes across Rome to the long-forgotten Illuminati liar - a secret refuge wherein lies the only hope for the Vatican. But, with each revelation comes another twist, another turn in the plot, which leaves Langdon and Vetra reeling, searching for something they can trust in the face of a seemingly invisible enemy...