The Da Vinci Code

The Da Vinci Code Summary | Plot Summary

From the first sentence, to the last The Da Vinci Code is filled with action and thrilling twists. The book begins with the murder of renowned Louvre Museum curator, Jacques Sauniere. With the last threads of strength before he dies from his wounds, Sauniere leaves a complex set of clues to an incredible secret. The Paris police chief, Bezu Fache, calls upon Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor and symbology specialist as well as Sophie Neveu, a police cryptologist, to help him decipher the clues left behind by Sauniere.

It turns out that Sauniere is Sophie's grandfather, and she believes the clues he left behind were instructions for her to find the secret about her family that is alluded to by a phone call from her grandfather shortly before he was murdered. She asks Langdon to help her solve the mystery behind her grandfather's death, and, to do so, they flee from Fache, who they believe is trying to frame Langdon for the murder, so that Sophie can learn the truth about her family and prove that Langdon did not murder Sauniere.

Langdon's and Neveu's quest for the truth leads them to a pursuit of the Holy Grail through a series of clues and riddles left behind by Sauniere. Sophie learns what Langdon already theorized, that the Holy Grail is not the cup of Christ but the tomb of Mary Magdalene, who had married and had a child with Christ, along with a large amount of documentation and proof that they had been married. Because of the power of the Vatican, the information had been suppressed for two thousand years but protected and carried on by a secret society called the Priory of Sion of which Sauniere was the Grand Master.

The clues lead them to uncover the keystone, which was believed to hold a map and instructions for uncovering the Holy Grail. At the same time they are pursuing the Grail, a murderous group led by the "Teacher" and an Opus Dei bishop is right on their heels in pursuit of the Grail and its power. Their henchman, an albino monk named Silas, will do anything, including murdering innocent bystanders, to get to the Grail.

Langdon and Neveu's pursuit of the keystone leads them to a safety deposit box in the Swiss Depository Bank. With the bank surrounded by police, they escape with the keystone and steal an armored truck. They flee to Sir Leigh Teabing's home in Versailles. Teabing is a famed Grail historian and good friend of Langdon's.

After Silas breaks into Teabing's home trying to retrieve the keystone, Teabing and his butler, along with Sophie, Robert, and a bound and gagged Silas, flee cross country in Teabing's Range Rover to a waiting private jet that sweeps them away to London.

In London, while Teabing, Neveu, and Langdon are solving riddles leading them to opening the keystone, Teabing's butler, Remy, releases Silas, and the two ambush the others and steal the keystone. They also take Teabing as their hostage and drive off in Teabing's Jaguar limousine. Sophie and Langdon continue to work on solving the clues to open the keystone, which leads them to a showdown with the Teacher, which, in a surprising twist, turns out to be Teabing. They are able to outsmart Teabing, open the keystone, and take its contents. Teabing is then arrested by Bezu Fache, who has been chasing the Teacher all along.

The final clue within the keystone leads Langdon and Sophie to the Rosslyn Chapel in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Sophie is reunited with the grandmother and brother, which, for most of her life, she thought were dead. Sophie's grandmother helps Langdon decipher some final clues and he finds the resting place of the Holy Grail under the Louvre museum in Paris. Of course, he swore to Sophie's family to keep it a secret.