A century apart, NUMA director Dirk Pitt and detective Isaac Bell team up to unlock the truth about the most famous maritime disaster of all time. In the present day, Pitt makes a daring rescue, from inside an antiquated submersible, in the waters off New York City. His reward is a document left behind a hundred years earlier by Bell--a document that reopens a historical mystery. In 1911, in Colorado, Isaac Bell, the chief investigator for the Van Dorn Detective Agency, is asked to look into an unexplained tragedy at Little Angel Mine in which nine people died. His dangerous quest to answer the riddle leads to a larger puzzle centered on byzanium, a rare element with extraordinary powers and of incalculable value. As he discovers that there are people who will do anything to control the substance, Bell will find out just how far he'll go to stop them.