It is the time of the Sede Vacante at the Vatican as the beloved Pope has just died. As the cardinals gather to select a new pope, four of them are kidnapped by a mysterious assassin who vows to destroy Vatican City. The Vatican asks Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) to track the mysterious clues that point to a secret scientific society called "The Illuminati" as the perpetrators of the kidnappings. Helping him are the Captain of the Swiss Guards, Commander Richter (Stellan Skarsgard) and Camerlengo Patrick McKenna (Ewan MacGregor), the former pope's chamberlain. As they track down the clues across Rome, it becomes evident that the assassin means business as they find each Cardinal dead as promised, and branded with messages. As the conclave continues, and as the timer on the bomb slowly counts down, Langdon is in a race against time to stop the destruction of the church.