You enter a darkened room with a single candle in the center, surrounded by ominous figures. The subject tonight, says one of the figures, will be death. A carefully worded and constructed ritual takes place, where you play the central role--the murder victim. After your ritual death, you are resurrected with the secret grip and word of the society you have just been initiated into: the Freemasons.

The subject of praise and condemnation throughout its long history, the only thing about Freemasonry that people cannot agree upon is its purpose. In trying to find the history behind their strange and confusing rituals, Freemasons Christopher Lomas and Robert Knight begin at the Holy Land, the site of King Solomon's temple, where the ritual story of the Master Mason takes place. From there, they find many startling revelations about the beginnings of all Western religion, and their journey takes them to Egypt and the Middle East, throughout Europe to Scotland, then across the Atlantic Ocean to the America...which might be the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy regarding the true teachings of Jesus Christ.

Written as a detective story with strong historical narrative, Knight and Lomas prove to be quite skeptical throughout their careful research, making their claims even more startling. Pointing out misinterpretations of ancient languages and citing historical fact, a new picture of the bed of civilization emerges that could concievably shake the modern religious right to its foundation. Unlike typical historical theory books, the authors do not seem to take special glee in imparting their fascinating information, but instead feel an obligation to provoke further discussion and research. For if the claims made in this book are true, then it truly is only the tip of the iceberg.