Who was the enigma the world knows as Christopher Columbus . . . and why has his true identity been covered up for centuries? When an aged scholar is found mysteriously dead in his hotel room, Thomas Noronha, expert cryptographer and professor of history, is called upon to finish the man's unresolved investigation. In the course of unraveling the puzzles and cryptograms shrouding his late predecessor's work, Thomas discovers a code that will set him on a breathtaking race across the globe—from Lisbon to Rio to New York and Jerusalem—as he is drawn into one of the greatest mysteries of all time, a shocking revelation that will alter everything we've always believed about one of the world's most celebrated adventurers.