The Vampire world is in crisis. Vampires have been proliferating out of control. Burnings have commenced all over the world -- huge massacres similar to those carried out by Akasha. Old vampires, roused from slumber in the earth, are doing the bidding of a Voice commanding that they indiscriminately burn vampire mavericks in cities from Paris and Mumbai to Hong Kong, Kyoto, and San Francisco. As the story moves throughout time -- from present day New York and the West Coast to Ancient Egypt... fourth century Carthage... 14th century Rome... the Venice of the Renaissance -- the worlds and characters of all the Vampire Chronicles come together. Louis de Pointe du Lac; the eternally young Armand whose face is that of a Botticelli angel; Mekare and Maharet, Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the Secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true child of the Millennia; along with new seductive, supernatural creatures, they all ultimately rise up and seek out who -- or what -- The Voice is, and to discover the secret of what it desires and why. Curiously missing is the hero-wanderer, the dazzling, dangerous rebel-outlaw, the great "hope" of the Undead, the dazzling Prince Lestat.