 Caspar Laing is a Professor of Semitic Languages who is asked to translate an ancient parchment found in Israel.Fragmentary as the message is, it appears to give directions to the hiding place of a holy candelabrum rescued from the Jerusalem Temple before its destruction by the Romans in 70 AD.But the Jordanians have a copy of the parchment as well, and the search for the priceless "menorah" becomes a deadly cat and mouse hunt in the burning Negev desert.