In the year 998, a
monk is betrayed by his compatriot, and shot to death by archers. As they search his robe to find their objective—the mummified hand of
Saint Sebastian—they notice a tattoo on the man's body: an
ouroboros, which will later become the symbol of the
Millennium Group. In 1998, modern Group member Peter Watts (
Terry O'Quinn) asks his colleague,
Frank Black (
Lance Henriksen), for help with a case the Group have not authorized; he remains cryptic as to what it is. They travel to
Germany to investigate the murder of a Dr. Schlossburg, whose lab is found to house a mummified body. The two are arrested by German police, but when they realize they have apprehended fellow investigators they promise cooperation. However, the pair learn that Schlossburg has already been cremated; later they narrowly escape death when their rental car is rigged with a
car bomb. Black connects the attempt on their lives to Schlossburg's murder. He demands details of the case from Watts, who explains that the mummy found earlier dates to
early Christianity, the time when the Group first convened. However, they realize they are being tailed by two men and return to their hotel. There, they are met by Cheryl Andrews (
C. C. H. Pounder), a fellow Group member who has worked with them in the past. She offers her help, but Watts declines it. Watts is later able to access Schlossburg's computer files. Meanwhile, Schlossburg is found to be alive, regaining consciousness in a hospital bed and telling police his assailant was Watts. Andrews tells Black she has been sent to prevent Watts acting outside the Group's remit; she gives Black a contact number and leaves. Later, Black returns to Schlossburg's lab and finds Watts, who explains that a knightly order, the Knights Chroniclers, had possessed the
relic of Saint Sebastian at the turn of the
second millennium; the hand imparts knowledge to its possessor that will help to overcome the evils associated with the turn of the millennium. Watts reveals that Schlossburg had uncovered the order's burial ground. Black and Watts learn that Schlossburg is alive and visit him; the doctor does not recognize Watts but insists that his attacker identified himself by that name. He also reveals the locations of the burial ground, in a
bog. After Black and Watts leave to reach it, Schlossburg is murdered by two assassins. At the bog, the pair find a mummified corpse clutching the relic; however, they have been followed by the police, and Watts is arrested for Schlossburg's murder. Black tracks down Andrews at the storage building where the relic has been taken. They are ambushed by the two assassins, and during their escape, Black mentions where the relic is hidden. Andrews immediately turns on Black; the ambush was a trick to draw the information out of Black, while she had engineered events to use Watts as a fall man to discredit the Group. However, the police are able to intervene, hearing everything and rescuing Black. Later, Watts and Black study the relic, but Black is convinced that their own convictions will be more important to them than mystical artifacts. ==Production==