In the winter of 1955, William Lakeland, a fireman in Eugene, Oregon, receives a package and a small box from a law office in Maine. An attached letter tells of the passing of Frederick Freedman, a former professor of his at Yale University. Freedman had bequested Lakeland the contents of the package and box. In 1938 Lakeland was a graduate student in Religion at Yale, and also worked part-time in the Religion Department. One morning he delivered to Freedman an urgent message from the Archdiocese of Hartford. The two travel to Hartford and learn from the Archbishop that the Pope has requested that Professor Freedman come to Europe to search for a document. Freedman agrees, somewhat skeptically, but due to classes, and Freedman's approaching retirement, the professor and Lakeland-very surprised to be asked to go as an assistant-don't depart until September. Unexpectedly, the next chapter goes back in time to 1168, to Paris, where a maker of stained glass named Delabarus is introduced. Delabarus, like the professor, is a troubled man, with a complicated past, who is also searching for something. From this point on the story moves back and forth between the fall of 1938 and the years 1168 to 1172.