In 1801 newly elected president Thomas Jefferson, taking office in the burgeoning capital of Washington, D.C., convinces Ethan Gage and Norwegian Magnus Bloodhammer to go on a scouting expedition--one that precedes that of Lewis and Clark--to investigate reports of woolly mammoths and blue-eyed Indians. The pair have their own motive, however, which they neglect to share with the president: a search for the mythical hammer of the Norse god Thor.

Expatriate Ethan Gage, in the Holy Land to save his former lover Astiza and to search for the revered legendary Book of Thoth, is in danger again as Napoleon's army marches towards Jerusalem.

On a quest to rescue "Egyptian priestess" Astiza and son Harry from their enemies, Ethan, using death as his ruse, and a pair of unlikely allies must decipher clues from the sword of Roland to save his family and uncover a mysterious medieval device rumored to foretell the future.