Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital in Florence, Italy, with a head wound, no memory of the last few days, and a macabre object hidden in his belongings. His confusion turns to terror when a female assassin shows up to kill him, forcing him to flee through the city streets with a resourceful young doctor, Sienna Brooks. Langdon and Brooks soon discover they are entangled in a plot centered on one of history's most mysterious and enduring literary masterpieces: Dante's Inferno.
Pursued by a shadowy organization and Italian police, Langdon's only hope for survival is to use his knowledge of art, history, and secret passageways to decipher a series of cryptic codes. The clues are buried in Renaissance art and architecture, leading them on a breathless chase across Florence, Venice, and Istanbul. Langdon realizes they are not just fighting for their lives, but are in a race against time to stop a brilliant scientist from unleashing a global plague designed to solve the world's overpopulation problem. He must unravel the puzzle to decide who to trust before the world is irrevocably altered.