In ruins on the outskirts of Gaza, a plucky young female archaeologist has made a remarkable find: possibly the earliest known image of the Virgin Mary, created during her lifetime. But before she can reveal it to the world, it is stolen from her in a brutal personal assault amidst the chaos of an Israeli airstrike. With her former lover, an Oxford professor of comparative historiography, she sets out on a dangerous quest to some of the holiest sites in Christendom.