Tom Sullivan, about to graduate from Princeton, is haunted by the violent death of his father, an academic who devoted his life to one of the rarest, most complex books in the world. Coded in seven languages, the 'Hypnerotomachia Poliphili', an intricate mathematical mystery and a tale of love and arcane bruitality, has baffled scholars since 1499. Tom's friend Paul is similarly obsessed and when a long-lost diary surfaces they finally seem to make a breakthrough