King of Jerusalem and Defender of the Holy Sepulcher, Baldwin IV walks the sword s edge between the intriguing barons of his own Court and the jihad of Islam. Between the two, however, a sinister presence lurks a heretical society called the Order of Sion that will stop at nothing to see its own dark designs come to fruition. Baldwin is young, innocent, and a military strategist of no small measure. And, he is a leper. In the midst of mounting political tensions and war, a mysterious woman unexpectedly befriends the lonely sick king a woman who claims she is Mary Magdalen.