"Evil personified appears at first sight repulsive. But the more we study the personality of the Devil, the more fascinating it becomes. The Devil is the rebel of the cosmos, the independent in the empire of a tyrant; ... he is the individualising tendency, the craving for originality, which bodily upsets the ordinances of God that enforce a definite kind of conduct; he overturns the monotony that would permeate the cosmic spheres if every atom in unconscious righteousness and with pious obedience slavishly followed a generally prescribed course."
- Paul Carus, The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil (1900)
Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is highly skilled at his work - locating rare books for wealthy collectors - a position that requires dexterity, cultural expertise, nerves of steel ... and few scruples. Corso is hired by eminent book-lover and scholar of demonology, Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), Corso's mission: to compare Balkan's newly acquired edition of the legendary manual of satanic invocation, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows, with the two remaining copies located in Europe, and ascertain the authenticity of the three books,
From New York to Toledo, Portugal to Paris, Corso immerses himself in a labyrinth full of pitfalls and temptations, disturbing encounters, violence and mysterious deaths. Protected by an other-worldly creature (Emmanuelle Seigner) and guided by a force more powerful than himself, the hunter solves one by one the mysteries of the dreaded book and discovers the real purpose of his mission ...
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Dean Corso (Johnny Depp) is a New York book broker who specializes in tracking down rare and exotic volumes for well-heeled collectors. Corso brings to his work a breadth of knowledge, a direct manner and a keen eye. He also brings to it an essentially cold-blooded, amoral nature; to help himself, Corso will not hesitate to trick an under-educated owner into selling him a valuable four- volume edition of Don Quixote for next to nothing. Corso's mercenary ethos makes him the preferred book detective of the urbane publisher Boris Balkan (Frank Langella), whose climate-controlled library is entirely devoted to books about the Devil, and who has an unusual assignment for Corso.
Balkan has recently acquired a long-coveted, seventeenth-century satanic text called The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of the Shadows from a fellow collector, Andrew Telfer, who committed suicide the very next day. The book is illustrated with nine engravings that, when properly interpreted and combined with the original text, are said to summon the Devil and open the entrance to the Underworld. Published in 1666, it was adapted by its Venetian author, Aristide Torchia, from a legendary book written by Satan himself, a transgression for which the Holy Inquisition burned Torchia at the stake. Three copies of The Nine Gates survived, but Balkan is certain that something is wrong with his edition; he suspects that only one of the three editions is authentic. He offers Corso a hefty fee to seek out the two remaining volumes in Portugal and France and compare them against his. Corso, who believes in cash, not the devil, accepts the job.
With The Nine Gates in his possession, Corso soon finds himself at the center of strange and violent goings-on. Not only is his apartment ransacked, it appears that he is being shadowed by the striking, mysterious blond Girl (Emmanuelle Seigner) he first noticed at a demonology lecture given by Balkan. And, though Telfer's beautiful French-born widow Liana (Lena Olin) initially expresses only mild surprise regarding her husband's sale of The Nine Gates, she soon has a change of heart and becomes ferociously determined to regain the book.
Corso stashes The Nine Gates with his friend Bernie (James Russo), a rare book dealer. The book is safe at Bernie's shop, but Bernie himself is not: when Corso goes to retrieve the volume, he discovers his friend hanging upside down in a pose identical to an engraved illustration in The Nine Gates. The stunned Corso calls Balkan to quit, but the collector exponentially ups the financial ante. At the same time, the broker's curiosity is aroused when he hears flight announcements emanating from his client's undisclosed location. It seems Balkan is on his way to Europe, as well.
Corso's first stop is Toledo, Spain, where the Telfer edition was purchased from the bookbinders/dealers the Ceniza brothers (Jose Lopez Rodero). The two chatty brothers are a fountain of information about The Nine Gates and the paths it has traveled over three centuries. They tell the skeptical Corso that Aristide Torchia collaborated on the book with Satan himself, and also reveal that Liana Telfer badgered her indifferent husband into buying it for her. Insisting on the book's authenticity, the brothers point out a significant detail in one of its nine engravings: it is signed "LCF," which they claim stands for "Lucifer." Outside the store, Corso has an encounter with some metal scaffolding that corresponds quite eerily to the message of that same engraving.
Circumstances grow more bizarre in Sintra, Portugal, where Corso travels to examine the copy of The Nine Gates owned by Victor Fargas (Jack Taylor), the gracious scion of a formerly wealthy family. Pouring over the Balkan and Fargas editions, Corso discovers unexpected discrepancies in three of the engravings, with one set signed with the author's initials "AT," and the other "LCF." Corso no sooner steps outside Fargas's gates than an attempt is made on his life, perhaps by the sinister-looking bodyguard (Tony Amoni) Corso glimpsed on the grounds of Liana Telfer's mansion.
Corso returns to his hotel to find the Girl reading in the lounge, the second time he has crossed paths with her in Europe. She is playfully evasive but seems to know a great deal about The Nine Gates and the people pursuing it. It is the Girl who tells Corso to return to Fargas' estate, where he finds the old man lying dead in a pond, and the The Nine Gates smoldering in the fireplace, robbed of its engravings. Balkan, who had phoned Corso in Sintra and instructed him to get him Fargas's edition by any means necessary, is far more upset about the missing engravings than their owner's death.
Though Corso remains leery of the Girl, he accepts her as a kind of guardian angel and travels with her to Paris, home of the wheelchair-bound Baroness Kessler (Barbara Jefford), owner of the third and final copy of The Nine Gates. The Baroness, an acknowledged authority on the devil, recounts some of the book's history, noting that a secret society called the Order of the Silver Serpent was formed to perpetuate the teachings of The Nine Gates. Kessler herself quit the society in disgust as decadent millionaires like Liana Telfer took over the leadership. The Baroness harbors no fondness for Boris Balkan, either; learning of Corso's business affiliation with Balkan, she kicks him out of her office before he can study her edition.
Balkan continues to monitor his employee by phone. He orders Corso to revisit Baroness Kessler, darkly invoking an "at all costs" philosophy. Corso manages to wangle his way back into the Baroness's office, unwittingly sealing her macabre fate. When Kessler's wheelchair crashes into a raging fire, Corso discovers too late that the engravings from her book have also been stolen.
By now, Corso is as obsessed as his client with The Nine Gates, which has been snatched from its hiding place by Liana Telfer and her bodyguard. With the Girl's help, Corso pursues Liana to her family's enormous chateau in the French countryside, where the annual meeting of the Society of the Silver Serpent is about to commence. But Boris Balkan is also on Liana's trail; like Corso, he is hell-bent on getting his hands on those nine original engravings signed by Lucifer. Bursting in on the black-robed assembly of jaded thrill-seekers, Balkan denounces Liana and her ridiculous coven, proclaiming that only he is fit to receive Satan's favors. With the Girl physically restraining him, Corso can only look on helplessly as Balkan strangles Liana to death and strides out of the chateau with The Nine Gates and its invaluable engravings.
Corso, however, is not about to let his chance at immortality slip away. Driving, hitching rides and walking, he makes his way to Balkan's ancient stone castle, where the publisher is preparing to deliver his soul to the devil. The two men battle for control of The Nine Gates, but neither one knows that the set of engravings contains one forgery, rendering any attempt to pass through the ninth gate doomed. Ultimately it is the Girl, revealed at last as an agent of the devil, who decides whether the secrets of The Nine Gates will be unlocked - and to whom.
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