Archaeologist Arnold Landon's attendance at a conference in Rome leads him into the world of professional grave robbers, when he stumbles upon a revenge killing in the Etruscan city of the dead. Back in less glamorous Northumberland, DCI O'Connor has his own problems, investigating an international smuggling ring in ancient artifacts. . The paths of the two men converge when a professional killer arrives to continue the blood feud begun in Italy. For Landon and O'Connor the solution seems to lie in the whereabouts of a missing antiques dealer.