The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections

The story follows Liesl Weiss, a longtime librarian at a prestigious university who is suddenly thrust into the role of interim director when her boss suffers a stroke. Her transition is anything but smooth: she quickly discovers that a priceless manuscript—the Plantin Polyglot Bible—is missing from the library’s locked safe. Bound by the library’s culture of silence and its "possessive" need to protect its reputation, Liesl must conduct a quiet investigation. As she digs deeper, she realizes that the people she has worked with for decades are all keeping secrets, and the department itself is built on a foundation of lies.