Introduction

The Lost Symbol is a bestselling novel by Dan Brown and is the third to feature Harvard professor and symbology expert Robert Langdon. In this novel, Langdon makes a last-minute trip to Washington, DC, to give a keynote speech at an event hosted by his friend and mentor, Peter Solomon. However, when Langdon arrives, he discovers that Peter’s kidnapper lured him to Washington in order to compel him to decipher a code that will reveal an Ancient Mystery protected by the Freemasons. The Lost Symbol was made into a series in 2021 starring Ashley Zukeman as Langdon.

This study guide utilizes the eBook version of the novel published in 2009 by Doubleday.

Plot Summary

Robert Langdon receives a phone call from a man claiming to be the executive assistant of his friend and mentor, Peter Solomon. The assistant requests that he fly to Washington, DC, and give the keynote speech at a donor’s party that is taking place later that night. Peter is the secretary of the Smithsonian Museum and often hosts such parties, and according to the assistant, his original keynote speaker canceled at the last minute. Langdon agrees to deliver the speech. (Years ago, Peter entrusted Langdon with a small, enigmatic package and charged him to keep it safe. Langdon brings the capstone with him to Washington, DC, ignorant of its contents.)

Peter’s assistant arranges for a private jet and car service to take Langdon to the US Capitol Building where the party is supposedly taking place, but when Langdon arrives, there is no party. Instead, Langdon receives a phone call from the same man who claimed to be Peter’s executive assistant. This man now claims to be holding Peter captive and tells Langdon that he arranged for him to come because he needs to find an underground portal that is said to be protected by the Masons. While Landon is speaking to this man, visitors to the Capitol stumble upon a dismembered hand in the Rotunda. Langdon recognizes the ring on the hand as one that belongs to Peter. A series of numbers and letters has been tattooed on the hand.

Capitol security arrives shortly before Director Inoue Sato does. Director Sato is the director of the CIA’s Office of Security, and she takes over the investigation. After listening to Langdon’s explanation of the tattoos that have been added to Peter’s severed hand, she demands that both she and Langdon be taken into the bowels of the Capitol Building, where they access an office whose designation corresponds to the tattooed letters and numbers. They discover that the room in question is a Mason’s meditation room. Inside the room, they find a small pyramid that Langdon believes is the map that the kidnapper wanted him to find.

As Langdon becomes more concerned about Director Sato’s hidden motivations, she insists on taking Langdon to CIA headquarters to retain him. Suddenly, someone bursts into the room and attacks both Director Sato and the Capitol police chief, helping Langdon escape the Capitol. Langdon and this man, who turns out to be the architect of the Capitol, Warren Bellamy, escape the Capitol Building and slip into the basement of the Library of Congress. There Langdon receives another call from the kidnapper, a man calling himself Mal’akh, who tells Langdon that the capstone he brought with him must be used to decipher the symbols on the pyramid, and that the pyramid itself is a map to an underground portal through which one can access the Ancient Mysteries that the Masons have guarded for generations. (The “Ancient Mysteries” refer to a body of knowledge amassed thousands of years ago; knowledge that supposedly allows a person to access abilities that lie dormant in the human mind.)

Langdon calls Katherine Solomon, Peter’s sister, to tell her about Peter’s kidnapping and to arrange for them to meet. Unfortunately, Katherine has invited Mal’akh to her lab, believing mistakenly that he is a friend. Katherine manages to escape Mal’akh and run from her lab. Langdon and Katherine meet up at the Library of Congress and escape using a conveyor belt that moves books underground from library to library, while Warren gives himself up to Director Sato.

Katherine and Langdon share information and compare notes on what they know, and Katherine makes the decision to open Peter’s package (which Langdon safeguarded for years and has brought with him to Washington, DC). Opening the package, they find the capstone to the pyramid. Placing the capstone on the pyramid allows them to begin deciphering the writings. When they realize that their cab driver has contacted the CIA, they arrange a ruse to escape and travel to the Washington Cathedral to meet with a friend of Warren’s named Reverend Colin Galloway, who is the dean of the cathedral. The Reverend explains that the pyramid is a map that indicates a real location. Katherine boils the pyramid to activate hidden messages on its surface and reveals what they believe is an address. However, before they can investigate, Director Sato finds them.

It is revealed that Director Sato knew where to find Langdon and Katherine because she showed Warren a video that convinced him to begin helping her. However, just before Director Sato arrived, Langdon learned that Peter has been discovered alive. Langdon now convinces Director Sato to allow him and Katherine to go to the location where Peter is being held, while Director Sato and her team go to the address on the pyramid. Unfortunately, when Katherine and Langdon try to rescue Peter, they realize too late that they have walked into a trap and are now themselves prisoners in Mal’akh’s home along with Peter. Mal’akh places Langdon into a suspended animation tank and makes it appear that he is about to drown, compelling him to decipher the final piece of the directions on the pyramid. Mal’akh then places an open needle into Katherine’s arm to allow her to bleed out slowly in order to force Peter to obey his commands.

Director Sato and her team figure out that Mal’akh isn’t going to show up at the address on the pyramid, so they go to the location where Katherine and Langdon found Peter. Their on-site agent is not responding to their communications, and they soon find the agent dead. They also discover Katherine and Langdon in a hidden basement. Director Sato shows Langdon the same video she shared with Warren: a heavily edited video of Masonic rituals that reveals the faces of some very important men within the United States government. At the same time, Mal’akh is threatening to release this video in order to force Peter to give him the Lost Word, a word which Mal’akh believes will allow the Ancient Mysteries to become clear to him. Peter gives Mal’akh a word, and Mal’akh tattoos it onto his head, then insists that Peter kill him. It is then that Mal’akh reveals his true identity to Peter. He is Peter’s son, Zachary, who was believed to have been killed in a Turkish prison. Peter refuses to believe that Mal’akh is his son. The CIA arrives just in time to stop the transmission of Mal’akh’s video, and Mal’akh is killed by falling glass when the strut of a passing CIA helicopter breaks a window.

Peter takes Langdon to the Capitol and explains that the underground portal is actually a stairwell that leads under the Capitol Building and that the Ancient Mystery is a Bible secreted within the cornerstone that was placed when the building’s construction began. Peter also explains that the early Masons believed that with enough knowledge, all men are capable of being gods, and that someday, all men will become enlightened enough to reach this god-like status.