The novel features Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a man who seeks revenge for the murder of his family. Ezio begins to train himself as an assassin and becomes drawn into a war between the Assassin's Brotherhood and the Templar Order. The two secret organizations have been combating each other for centuries to secure an ancient technology, called the "Apple of Eden," a relic which can control human minds. Both groups also seek a vault in Italy, which contains the knowledge and technology of an ancient, technologically superior civilization.