Born with 220 million olfactory receptors in the mucous membrane of her nose, the same as a bloodhound, and trained to smell diseases, SISTER MICHAELA is asked to make sense of a contagious illness. During the day, the sick wilt; lesions cover their bodies; they burn with fever. But as these symptoms abate at night, the patients emit a sulfurous odor: Evil.
Michaela's search for the deeper meaning of the disease and her attempt to stop its spread lead from Atlanta to an ancient Jesuit mission in the southern Amazon to Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro and back to Atlanta. The more she pursues answers, the more Michaela finds herself entangled in a web she does not understand. Through a secret Order of militant knights, the Vatican is involved. A hotel bombing. A marksman's bullet. No one knows how Michaela's niece became pregnant, and then she is kidnapped. The State Department wants Michaela to disappear–and meanwhile the virus is spreading.
The knights are descendants of the Templars and keepers of the ancient oracles. The Church and the Pope face danger. But why do the knights guard Michaela? The scrolls of Qumran provide additional clues. And when joined to Michaela's ability to sniff what ordinary people cannot, she begins to grasp meaning. Who are the forces of night? Why is Michaela's niece a bull's eye target? Does the sickness indicate more than the rise of the sons and daughters of darkness? Is that the Order's most damning secret? What does the Vatican not want anyone to know?
