When Dr. Sarah Chen, an expert in comparative religion with an eye for hidden patterns, discovers an enigmatic journal buried in a bookstore outside of Cambridge, she unearths a forgotten mystery tied to an ill-fated 1908 archaeological expedition. As Sarah and her team delve into the cryptic records, they uncover chilling truths about an ancient society known as the Absent Crown—a group whose influence stretches across centuries, manipulating events through the power of absence itself. Haunted by personal losses, like Sarah’s young daughter who succumbed to a mysterious illness, the researchers’ fight becomes deeply personal. As reality frays at the edges, the team must choose how to navigate their place in the middle of a conspiracy formed by a cult willing to sacrifice everything for their apocalyptic vision. The stakes climb as they rush to fill the spaces left by centuries of absence, confronting not only the machinations of the Absent Crown but the voids within themselves.