On a bright, late-winter morning in Rome, a terrible explosion rips a hole in the israeli embassy. Moments later, four gunmen cut down the survivors as they stagger from the burning building. Art restorer Gabriel Allan, working in Venice on Bellini's San Zaccaria altarpiece is hastily recalled home to israel and drawn once more into the heart of a secret service he had hoped to leave behind. For the repercussions of the blast have led, to a disturbing revelation: a dossier that strips away Allon's secrets and lays bare his history. A dossier that had fallen into terrorist hands . . . So Allan finds himself on the trail of an elusive master terrorist across a landscape drenched with generations of blood, the trail turning on itself until, finally, he can no longer be certain who is stalking whom. And when at last the showdown comes, it will not be Gabriel alone who is threatened with destruction - for it is not just his history that has been laid bare . . .