Cass Neary needs cash to get home, and she's already sold her camera. Now her best chance is to get in on a deal for an ancient illuminated manuscript. But an intruder suddenly steals it out from under the dealer's nose. To clear her name, and keep the missing text out of dangerous hands, Cass plunges into a curious underworld at the intersection of antiquarian books, cutting-edge software, and modern nationalist politics.