Ethan Gage wants to enjoy the fruits of victory after helping Napoleon win the Battle of Marengo. But an ill-advised tryst with Bonaparte's married sister has made that impossible and he flees to America, accompanied by the wild Norwegian Magnus Bloodhammer. With President Thomas Jefferson's blessing, Ethan and Magnus embark upon an expedition into the western wilderness – keeping their eyes open for woolly elephants. But another prize secretly impels them: Thor's mythical hammer, allegedly carried to North America more than a century before Columbus. Gage's skills will be tested as never before as he braves unimaginable peril en route to the most incredible discovery of all time.

Moving from the chilly intrigues of the Russian Court to the secretive palace of the Ottoman Empire, Ethan Gage and his family seek a relic that promises imperial invincibility. Gage believes he has a chance at a royal title as a foreign advisor to the Russians in St. Petersburg. But when Ethan and Astiza are pressed into a perilous quest for symbolic swords, they plunge into a far deeper conspiracy for a prize far older, and far more powerful. From the snow of Russia to the seraglio of Constantinople, they must overcome treachery, heartbreak, and an encounter with fundamental evil. The Trojan Icon sees the heroes collide and collude with a desperate empress, a one-armed Prussian, an exiled monarch, a Polish patriot, a French harem slave and a Transylvanian duke. As armies march, fleets thunder, and diplomats plot, can Ethan, Astiza, and Harry find home?