Saving the lives of two American archaeologists who nearly drown in a sacrificial pool in the Andes Mountains, Dirk Pitt becomes unwittingly involved in a sinister crime organization that has discovered an ancient treasure.

It is 1906, and in New York City, the Italian crime group known as the Black Hand (La Mano Nera) is on a spree: kidnapping, extortion, arson. Detective Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Agency is hired to form a special "Black Hand squad," but the gangsters appear to be everywhere -- so much so that Bell begins to wonder if there are imitators, criminals using the name for the terror effect. And then the murders begin, each one of a man more powerful than...