In 1911, a company of French Foreign Legionnaires is massacred in the Sahara Desert. While burying his comrades, the sole survivor discovers a tome which refers to "e;The Crystal,"e; the ultimate secret of the Knights Templar, the guardians of the Crusades. During his escape from North Africa and his subsequent search for the talisman, the Legionnaire battles Tuareg tribesmen, Russian assassins and German spies, each intent on obtaining the book. Along his journey, he unmasks his own true story, as well as the actual age of the Crystal, which pre-dates Atlantis. Just as the Legionnaire finally obtains the mythical talisman, his major adversary, a Cossack, the fiend who had also murdered his family, ambushes him. When all appears lost, he is rescued by the love of a Moroccan princess, whose life he once saved when she had worn the guise of a boy.