Dan Brown’s novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” follows the standard thriller formula: a man and a woman race across several major cities, pursued by assorted villains, searching for an object that will save or destroy the world — in this case, the Holy Grail. People are tied up and tossed into cars, shots are fired, allies turn out to be enemies.

Brown’s particular genius is to wrap this plot in layers of historical fact and fiction. As the characters flee their pursuers by plane, train, armored truck and Range Rover, they pause frequently to make a series of startling assertions about the nature of Christianity. According to Brown’s characters, Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, who was pregnant with his child when he was crucified. After his death, Mary Magdalene fled to France, where her child was born. Their descendants survive to this day, protected by a secret society, the Priory of Sion.

Members of the Priory also preserve valuable documents that trace the genealogy of this remarkable family, along with the location of the mortal remains of Mary Magdalene. And those remains are the Holy Grail that has been sought throughout history. The notion that it is the chalice from the Last Supper turns out to be a reference to Mary Magdalene, who was holding Jesus’ blood through her unborn child.

“The Da Vinci Code” suggests that the Catholic Church made up the notion that Jesus was divine and suppressed all evidence of the feminine side of divinity in order to consolidate its power.

While the Priory of Sion has kept the secret, many of its members, who range from Leonardo da Vinci to Walt Disney, planted clues in plain sight. With the end of the astrological Age of Pisces, and the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the time has come for the Priory to reveal its secrets.

And that’s what sets the plot of “The Da Vinci Code” in motion and keeps it creaking along to a rather anti-climactic end.