Benjamin Franklin Gates is an American historian, cryptographer, and treasure hunter. As a child, his grandfather, John Adams Gates, told him of a story that Charles Carroll of Carrollton passed on a secret to their ancestor in 1832 of a fabled treasure taken from ancient empires throughout history that was discovered by the Knights Templar and later protected by the Freemasons. The treasure would eventually be hidden in America by the Founding Fathers of the United States. The clue leading to the treasure is the phrase "The secret lies with Charlotte". While Ben is convinced by the story, his skeptical father dismisses it as nonsense.