At the start of World War II a train departs from Salonika and heads for the Italian Alps, carrying a mysterious cargo.

Over the next four decades, various members of the wealthy Italian Fontini-Cristi family, and a small brotherhood of priests with the name Xenope, struggle to locate and control the deadly secret cargo.

At this time, the Order of Xenope, a secretive Greek monastic brotherhood, possesses ancient religious manuscripts, some of which, if authentic, are considered to be of enough significance to shatter the Christian religion.

The family's massacre by an execution squad, consisting of German soldiers overseen by Donatti, is secretly witnessed by Vittorio, who can hardly believe the horror - father, mother, brothers, wives, children - all murdered in front of his eyes.

Having barely survived the torture, Victor sells all of his holdings in Italy and establishes an extremely successful post-war consulting business in America.

The sons are on opposite sides of the Vietnam War, but Andrew has grown into a sociopathic man, for whom the end justifies the means.

Remembering comments and gestures by his murdered father, the 70-year-old Victor travels back to Campo de' Fiori, and discovers key clues to the vault's location.

Badly injured, Victor returns to America to charge his Geminis with the responsibility of locating the hidden documents, realizing only that the sons have grown apart, but not that Andrew should not have such crucial information to be used for ill purposes.