How far will a man’s faith drive him? All the way to death and destruction? It’s August 2015, and the Islamic State terror group has destroyed the iconic Temple of Bel in Palmyra, a world heritage site of cultural renown in war-torn Syria. Paris-based antiquarian art dealer Tom Hayter is compelled to act having learned of IS’s plundering of the art treasures of Syria and Iraq. He sets out to thwart the terrorists and those supporting them by joining a UNESCO-backed Task Force. He is sent into the field to hunt down a Cretan smuggling ring and recover the pillaged treasures of the Middle East before they reach the world’s art markets where antiquities are traded for cash, to be laundered for arms and munitions.

But can Tom trust his friends and colleagues, and who will he find at the heart of it? Do they have an informant in their midst, and who will he ultimately have to betray to complete his mission? Tracking down the perpetrators of these UN-declared war crimes, Tom falls in love with a suspect, and becomes ensnared by IS’s subversive religious convictions, their hatred of idolatry, and the trail of blood money they leave in their wake.

Until one day he’s captured.