The crew of the space shuttle Discovery II, sent to retrieve the Mars probe Areopagus, make an indisputable UFO sighting. Back on Earth they're whisked into quarantine before they can talk by orders from CIA director Carl Snow. Soon they're all dead, victims of a mysterious fire. Peter MacKenzie, the shuttle pilot's best friend and cynical defense analyst, hears rumors that HAM radio operators picked up transmissions from the Discovery II mentioning UFOs. Suspecting a cover-up, he vows to find out why his friend had to die.
Meanwhile, Professor Miles Lavisch discovers an enigmatic book locked inside a rock brought back by the Areopagus. On stage and set to announce the shocking news at a Smithsonian Museum symposium, he is assassinated and the book disappears. Soon his daughter, gene researcher Dr. Molly Lavisch, becomes a target too.
Together in an uneasy alliance, Peter and Molly desperately race to recover the book and trade it for their lives as a secret CIA cadre and Saudi double agent and terrorist Bandar Bliss doggedly pursue them. But a chance translation of the First Martian Covenant reveals that the "Reconciliation Project," which will determine the fate of Earth and take the measure of every human soul, is well underway, fulfilling Judgment-Day prophesies from every major world religion.
