From the international bestselling author of Fatherland and Munich, a gripping mystery and a fascinating cautionary tale. "All civilizations consider themselves invulnerable; history warns us that none is." 1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote English village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts--coins, fragments of glass, human bones--which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth.