A group of climbers is missing in the Tyrolean Mountains. A search and rescue team is dispatched. The mission is soon cancelled, the missing climbers are located, having returned by a different route. In the knowledge that the climbers are safe, the rescue team heads back down the mountain, en route they discover a body frozen in a slab of ice. The ice slab is airlifted to a local laboratory and as the ice melts, it quickly becomes clear that this is a discovery of undeniable archaeological significance. And then, to everyone's amazement, the body gradually warms and is found to have a pulse. Swiss PhD student Gerhardt Shynder is catapulted from his sedentary university life to take charge of the ancient Roman, Leddicus Palantina. And thus begins an implausible adventure that goes global and changes both their lives beyond recognition.