In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music--the Incendio waltz--and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Full of passion, torment, and chilling beauty, and seemingly unknown to the world, the waltz, its mournful minor key, its feverish arpeggios, appear to dance with a strange life of their own. Julia is determined to master the complex work and make its melody heard. Back home...

In the wake of a Munich writer's assassination, Mossad agent Gabriel Allon and Vatican priest Pietro embark on dangerous journeys that reveal long-buried secrets affecting the fates of millions of people.

A tale spanning the period from the late 1930s to the height of the Cold War follows Paul Christopher's struggles against the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in Berlin through his efforts to escape the machinations of an S.S. officer who would kill Christopher for exposing the man's brutal actions.

In 1942 twelve-year-old Anton, his family, and their small community of Ukrainian Jews are hiding from the advancing Nazis troops, and from the Gestapo, in a web of underground caves, and one officer in particular, Major Karl Von Duesen, is determined to catch or kill every Jew he can find--but as the tide of war turns, a final confrontation between Anton and his enemy is looming.