A journal is found in the provinces of eastern Turkey. The red leather-boundbook, hidden for nearly a hundred years among the rubble of the home of a famous Istanbul goldsmith, will change history. Intrigued by the historical significance of this find, an Armenian photographer and a Turkish historian travel from Istanbul to the basalt mountains of Diyarbakir and on to Bitlis where little remains of the family's existence. Their race into the past reveals long-hidden secrets of forbidden love, unimaginable treasure, and murder. It is an epic tale of cultural and generational clashes.