When a woman's body is found at the foot of a cliff near the idyllic French town of St. Denis, chief of police Bruno Courr ges suspects a connection to the great ruin that stands above: a long-ago Knights Templar stronghold. With the help of Am lie, a young newcomer to the Dordogne, Bruno learns that the dead woman was an archaeologist searching for a religious artifact of incredible importance. And her ties to Islamic terrorists--not to mention the return of an old flame of Bruno's, who is assigned to work with him on the case--only heightens the pressure to unravel the centuries-old mystery. As Bruno works to connect the tangled threads of past and present, he nonetheless finds time, naturellement, to enjoy the wine, food, and beauty of the P rigord region.