By the Spring of 1931, the party is over in America and the Roaring 20s are only a fading memory. A shadowy conspiracy in Germany to assassinate President Hindenburg and restore the Kaiser's son to the throne threatens the peace of Europe.

At the behest of her Godfather, Winston Churchill, those dark events ensnare the adventure-seeking journalist Mattie McGary and her lover Bourke Cockran, Jr., a New York law school professor. A wild ride ensues where Mattie and Cockran are caught up in a brutal struggle between the forces of the old Germany and the new; between the reactionary industrialists backing Kaiser Wilhelm II and the radical racist zealots who support the fastest-growing political party in Germany and its leader, Adolf Hitler.

The focus of the conflict is an epic quest to recover an ancient artifact, the Spear of Destiny, the spear of the Roman centurion Longinus who pierced the side of Christ on the cross. Great leaders throughout history have held the Holy Lance at the helm of their armies, from Constantine to Charlemagne, from the Kaiser's ancestor Frederick Barbarossa to Frederick the Great, Hitler's favourite hero. Hundreds of thousands have died in the wake of the Spear of Destiny, which is now suddenly missing. Adolf Hitler wants it every bit as much as the Kaiser, but so does Winston Churchill, who quickly dispatches Mattie high into the Austrian Alps on a danger-filled quest for the Spear. When Cockran arrives to join her, both their lives are placed in jeopardy, and so is their romance when the handsome and mysterious leader of her expedition twice saves her life and seeks to seduce her as she is left vulnerable and shaken in the aftermath. Mattie knows she must overcome her growing attraction to this man if she is to succeed in her quest to find the Spear and save Cockran's love.