Griffin MacRobbin, the Director of the Institute for Antiquity, is enticed by his doctoral candidate, Anastasia, into a realm of cosmogonic mystery, in this multigenerational thriller that melds action, history, philosophy, and mythology. Stevan Romanov is sent by his guardian, the Montenegrin Gnostic philosopher, Herak, to study Egyptology at University College London; but often Stevan spends long weekends at Cismontane, the estate of Herak's colleague, Charles Graves. There, Stevan meets Graves' daughter, Marian, and soon they fall in love. As war in the 1940's engulfs Europe, Stevan and Marian take off for Stevan's homeland, Montenegro, in a restored WWI flying boat. Forced to land on the sea in a storm, they enter a cove on the Portuguese coast where a mansion looms above. Inside, lives the Demiurge, a celestial being who has fostered human chaos and strife throughout the centuries. In the persona of a politician, the Demiurge learns that Stevan is a protégée of Herak and the coterie that has opposed him and weakened his once invincible powers. Under duress, Stevan and Marian flee the mansion, but not before engendering the wrath of the Demiurge. In 1945, Egyptian peasants unearth a cache of papyrus texts, and Stevan obtains several, but the Gnostic codices lie untranslated in academia for almost 30 years until... 1974, Claremont California: Griffin MacRobbin, the Director of The Institute for Antiquity, notices his doctoral candidate, Ms. Romanov is alive to every moment, yes, very competent, but because she's almost too knowledgeable about the esoterica of their Gnostic-codex translation project, well, he suspects something's up with her. Soon, MacRobbin is drawn by Anastasia Romanov into a realm of cosmic peril as she relies on the codices to follow her late father's dangerous path to a world-shattering clash with the Demiurge.