A Chicago Cardinal faces sinister plots in the struggle to choose the next pope: "Maybe the best novel written about the intrigue of Vatican politics" (Chicago-Sun Times).

Chicago's Sean Cardinal Cronin and his assistant, Bishop John "Blackie" Blackwood, have travelled to Rome to take part in the next papal election. They lead a reformist coalition that has chosen a gentle and brilliant Spanish scholar as their candidate. But shadowy Vatican forces will do anything to prevent change and maintain their power.

A lone assassin stalks the Vatican, determined to destroy the next pope as soon as the traditional white smoke issues from the cardinals' meeting room—the Sistine Chapel—followed by the ancient words Habemus papam. Now the future of the Catholic Church hangs in the balance as Vatican City intrigue meets Chicago-style politics.