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1-Page Summary of The Da Vinci Code

In the Louvre, a monk of Opus Dei named Silas shoots Jacques Saunière. Before he dies, Saunière tells Silas that he’s lying about the location of the Holy Grail. He then paints a pentacle on his stomach with his own blood and draws a circle around himself in invisible ink.

A police detective calls the protagonist, Robert Langdon. The detective tells him that he was called in to investigate a murder at the Louvre and suspects Langdon is involved. Later on, Silas kills Sister Sandrine Bieil after being tricked by Saunière’s clues to find the keystone of an ancient secret society known as Priory of Sion (a cover-up for Opus Dei).

Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist and the granddaughter of Jacques Saunière, arrives at the crime scene. She tells Robert Langdon that he must contact the embassy immediately. When Langdon calls Sophie’s answering service number, he is told to meet her in the bathroom at the Louvre.

Sophie and Langdon escape the Louvre by throwing a tracking device out of the window. The police believe that Langdon has escaped, but he is actually still in the bathroom with Sophie.

Sophie also tells Langdon that the last line of the secret message, “Find Robert Langdon,” was her grandfather’s way of telling Sophie to find him. This is because P.S. stands for Princesse Sophie in French and this was her nickname for Sophie. Langdon thinks that P.S., which means Priory of Sion, might be an ancient brotherhood devoted to the preservation of pagan goddess worship traditions and caring about what happened to Jacques Saunière who died protecting a secret he knew about them.

Langdon decodes the second and third lines in Saunière’s message: “Leonardo Da Vinci! The Mona Lisa!” Sophie returns to the paintings to look for another clue. She finds a key behind the Madonna of the Rocks. Using this as leverage, she disarms a police officer and gets her and Langdon out of there.

As Sophie and Langdon drive to the bank identified on the back of the key, Langdon explains Priory of Sion history. He reveals that they protect secret documents called Sangreal or Holy Grail. His latest manuscript is about this very subject.

When Sophie and Langdon enter the bank, they find a security guard who calls the police. However, André Vernet, a friend of Saunière’s helps them escape. They figure out that the number left near Saunière’s body must be an account number for a vault in which there is something important. When they open it, they find a cryptex designed by Da Vinci and crafted by Saunière. It can only be opened with its password.

Vernet sneaks Langdon and Sophie into Collet’s armored car. He turns on them, but they escape with the keystone in a different car. They realize that it is actually the Priory keystone, which will help them find the Holy Grail.

Langdon and Sophie go to the house of Sir Leigh Teabing, a historian, for help opening the box. He tells them about how Constantine compiled the Bible after Jesus’ death, as well as other evidence that suggests Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. Teabing says that he thinks Saunière may have been killed because he suspected there was something in his church related to Mary Magdalene’s bloodline.

Langdon is showing Sophie and Teabing the cryptex when Silas shows up and hits him over the head. He holds them at gunpoint, demanding that they give him the keystone in order to open it. Teabing attacks Silas by hitting his thigh with a belt he’s wearing, which causes him pain due to his punishment belt. Sophie finishes off Silas by kicking him in the face after Teabing knocks out Silas’ henchman.

Collet arrives at the castle, but Sophie and Langdon escape with the help of Teabing, Silas, and Rémy. They board Teabing’s plane to England. While flying over France, they realize that the poem is actually a code that can be deciphered using an Atbash Cipher. The word “Sofia” is unscrambled by this cipher. When they open the cryptex again after landing in England, there’s another message inside telling them about a knight buried by a pope who was holding an orb that would lead them to Godfroi de Bouillon’s tomb where he hid his treasure.