American operative Ambrose Lincoln has no idea where he is or has been or where he's going. He believes he has been to the night side of dark, a place of the first death, from which no one can return. So why does he find himself on the bomb-ruined landscape of Poland, or has he been exiled to the second death?

Lincoln only realizes, if the man in the shadows has not lied to him, that he must find an ancient religious painting that has been missing for centuries. The German Gestapo will pay a fortune to buy it, or take a man's life to get it. The painting, if legend holds true, is the German hierarchy's final and only chance to escape the onslaught of the war that is crumbling around their feet.