" ... Nick Paleologus, a coolly efficient Englishman, is summoned home to resolve a dispute that threatens to tear his family apart. His father Michael is a retired archaeologist and supposed descendant of the last Emperors of Byzantium. Michael has received a hugely generous offer for the family estate in Cornwall, but refuses to sell--and refuses to divulge why. Soon the stalemate between Nick's siblings and their father is tragically broken, and only then do they discover why their father was bound to protect the house at all costs ..."--Page 4 of cover.