When a murder of a physicist, Leonardo Vetra, finds a symbolist, Robert
Langdon, and Mr. Vetra's daughter, Vittoria, on an adventure for a secret
brotherhood, The Illuminati. Clues lead them all around the Vatican,
including the four alters of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. An
Assassin, working for the Illuminati, has captured four cardinals, and
murders each, painfully. Robert and Vittoria also are searching for a new
very destructive weapon that could kill millions.
Despite his notorious relationship with the Church, Harvard symbologist
Robert Langdon is once again called upon to decipher the clues to a
catastrophic conspiracy. The Pope has died, and before conclave can begin
to determine his successor, the four preferitti (primary hopefuls for the
papacy) are kidnapped. An ominous threat of their hourly demise, along with
the complete annihilation of Vatican City, is issued as an elaborate
revenge scheme for a persecuted group known as the Illuminati. With their
meager time limit steadily counting down, Langdon, accompanied by beautiful
physicist Vittoria Vetra, must travel throughout Rome to unravel the
carefully hidden signs that will lead them to a terrifying adversary, a
harrowing discovery, and the shocking truth.
The Pope died and the conclave has been called for. Four candidates were
chosen. However, before the voting, the 4 candidates are killed one by one.
The killer leaves clues that seem to say that he/she is from the
Illuminati. Strangely though, the Illuminati was long thought to be
extinct. Who is the mastermind? Who revived the Illuminati? What do they
want?
After the death of the Pope, the conclave has gathered in a locked room to
choose his successor among four cardinals named "preferitti". However the
quartet is abducted by the Illuminati, a secret brotherhood that was
supposed extinct. The symbologist, Robert Langdon, and the scientist,
Vittoria Vetra, who had her powerful and dangerous prototype of antimatter
research stolen, are invited by the Vatican police to help them in their
investigation. They are received by the receptive Camerlengo, Patrick
McKenna, and by the reluctant Commander Richter. They are informed that the
Illuminati have promised to kill each cardinal every hour from 8:00 PM and
then explode the Vatican City with the antimatter. Robert and Vittoria have
a few hours to unravel the clues and discover where the lethal weapon might
be hidden.