You can find anything at flea markets. Mike O'Connor, a successful writer in crisis, knows this well. A few days before Christmas, he finds himself wandering among the stalls in the heart of the Big Apple.
Among the countless trinkets, he finds a model of an ancient sailing ship, and inside it, he discovers a mysterious parchment with a series of enigmatic drawings.
Thanks to the help of his friend Emily Watson, deputy director of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, he solves the mystery, but soon the two find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that will take them around the world, both above and below the sea.