The greatest thinker in human history, Plato, travels to Italy seeking initiation into the Orphic mysteries: the secret to the Underworld known only to the gods. But the knowledge he discovers is terrifying.More than two millennia later, twelve ancient golden tablets secreted in museums around the world hold sacred information known to only a fewthe pathway the dead must follow to the afterlife. And archaeologist Lily Barnes has just found another on a dig in southern Italy. But this tablet is far more valuableand dangerousthan the rest. It holds the key to hell itself.Now, Lily has vanished, and her husband, Jonah, is desperate to find her. He knows she is aliveand in mortal dangerand hes willing to go to hell to rescue her.

But the deeper he descends on this dark and twisting odyssey, the more Jonahs fear rises, for not everyone who travels where Lily has gone will find the way back.