As major financial centres are on high alert for the imminent collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, a young couple in New York is swept into an ancient financial plot. Around the world, strange and seemingly unrelated events – a murder in Venice, a plane crash in the South China Sea, a fatal accident in Sao Paulo – coincide with politicians and central bankers receiving secret messages. The powerful shadowy organisation behind centuries of financial crises springs into action once again.