In this beguiling psychological page-turner, a young man confronts a complex puzzle of love, deception, and belief-and a powerful religious organization that may be something far more sinister.

Matt Kelly is shocked when his ex-girlfriend Anna Barrett joins a shadowy organization known as Imperium Luminis-and disappears. As Matt researches Imperium Luminis, he finds himself both strangely attracted to the group's aspirations, and suspicious about their intentions. But when he begins to uncover some questionable practices, and becomes convinced that Imperium Luminis is actually a cult, Matt decides to persuade Anna that she has been deceived-even going so far as to pretend to join Imperium Luminis himself.

But how can one pretend to join? Trapped in this murky uncertainty of good and evil, where truth twists into lies, where even his own feelings are suspect, Matt must race to find Anna, and to uncover the true nature, and the true power, of the Empire of Light.