San Francisco based Investigative reporter Jake Fleming has a problem: Desmond Lewis, a Professor of English Literature and an old friend of his from London has vanished, en-route to a talk at the University of California in Berkeley about a new book promising shocking revelations. He never arrives. When a rented car is found parked on the Golden Gate Bridge with Lewis's travel bag in the trunk, the police deem it a suicide. Jake doesn't believe that for a minute, and convinces his newspaper, The San Francisco Tribune, to sponsor a trip to London to investigate. When Jake arrives, he discovers Lewis's office and apartment have both been ransacked. Any evidence of a new book is gone: no manuscripts, no flash drives, nothing. The only remaining clue is a list of brief words or abbreviations. Their meaning escapes him, but it's all he has.