At a dig along the fringes of Jerusalem's western suburbs, archaeologists uncover an ancient skeleton with inexplicably modern features. In Boston, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist vanishes, leaving his wife to explain both his disappearance and the couple's extraordinary new wealth. An investigator hired to unravel the mystery stumbles upon an astonishing technological development; and finds himself at the center of a small party - traveling through the Judea of Christ's time - seeking a resolution of the most important historical question of all. Their plans, however, quickly go awry in the face of the brutal realities of first century existence, leaving the intrepid travelers locked in a struggle for their very lives - two thousand years ago.