Returning to the UK to try to sort out his stormy personal life, ex-SAS hero and former theology scholar Ben Hope runs into two old friends, Simeon and Michaela, who were once his fellow students at Oxford. Ben senses that Simeon is deeply troubled and frightened, but before the truth can emerge both he and Michaela are wiped out in a devastating road crash. Convinced that his friends' deaths were no accident, Ben is propelled on a global quest from the UK to France, the Holy Land and America to unlock the enigma of the sacred sword.