The true story of the quest to solve one of the most mesmerizing linguistic riddles in history and of the three brilliant, obsessed, and ultimately doomed investigators whose combined work would eventually crack the code.

Prologue:Buried treasure -- The digger. The record-keepers -- The vanished key -- Love among the ruins -- The detective. American champollion -- A delightful problem -- Splitting the baby -- The matrix -- "Hurry up and decipher the thing!" -- The architect. The hollow boy -- A leap of faith -- "I know it, I know it" -- Solution, dissolution -- Epilogue: Mr. X and Mr. Y -- Appendix: The signs of Linear B.