Jess Brightwell and his friends are the rebels trying to free humanity's knowledge from the grasps of the Archivist Magister of the Great Library. Engaged in this deadly game, Jess finds himself in an Alexandrian cell with nothing but his wits and skill to aid him. With every word, written or spoken, meticulously monitored by the Obscurists, Jess has no way to contact his friends and family.

When Jess's girlfriend, Morgan, figures out how to hack the Codex, the system by which all language and knowledge is recorded, it takes just one word to spark the fire of rebellion. When the library, thousands of years in the making, is set to smoke and burn, will a group of smugglers, thieves and scholars be enough to save it?