At the heart of his capital, on the Ile de la Cité, Philip the Fair, King of France, is preparing to mark the completion of the Great Hall of his royal palace with lavish celebrations. As he nears the end of his long reign, he could consider himself to be at the height of his power, and probably the most prestigious monarch in the whole western World: he put down the Flemish rebellion, imposed his administration's authority over the whole kingdom, crushed the Order of the Templars and humbled the pretensions of the Papacy. He was even able to bask in reflected glory from his grandfather Louis IX's canonisation, which he procured in 1297.

And yet, on this beautiful Spring day, on the other side of the Ile de la Cité, a curious accident happened at Notre-Dame Cathedral: a skilled goldsmith working for the Court, Master Adam de Douai, fell from the Cathedral towers, then, having been brought back to the royal palace, he mysteriously disappeared. His brother Jacques, also a goldsmith, accompanied by the actress Rosemonde and young circus-rider Pierre de Cinq-Ormes set out together on a quest to find the truth, helped or hindered by a variety of other characters. What secret new invention was Adam working on? Who was behind his disappearance, and why?

Whichever of these three heroes you choose to become, you will have to use all your skill and ingenuity to avoid the many hidden traps and, just possibly, find the key to the mystery.

Pierre-Yves Le Pogam
Curator at the musée national du Moyen Age
(National Museum of the Middle Ages) - Thermes et Hôtel de Cluny