Some inheritances should stay buried.

When her estranged grandmother Victoria dies, rare book conservator Kaira Munroe inherits a hillside winery in Westonville, a yacht named Ophiuchus, and a family history she barely remembers. She hasn't set foot on the estate since she was seven. All she carries from that time is a dream of a marble fountain where three towering angels stand with a sword raised in judgment.

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Then a Jesuit astronomer from the Vatican's observatory on Mount Graham is murdered at the wake, moments before he can tell her the truth about Victoria.

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Living in the winery apartment beneath a painted ceiling of the Serpent Bearer, Kaira begins reading her grandmother's journals and the strange books she left behind on ancient forbidden texts and a forgotten thirteenth constellation. With help from Jonathan Bell, the high school sweetheart she never forgot, and Father Murphy from the abbey across the valley, she uncovers a secret her family has guarded for fifty years. Her parents' deaths were no accident. And a sect hidden within the Vatican, the Order of the Serpent, will kill anyone who stands between them and the documents smuggled out of Italy long ago.

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The Order believes those documents will open the gate of the gods. One night, when the stars align, they intend to use them. And beneath the vines, something has been waiting far longer than anyone knows.

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Some doors were sealed for a reason.