A young couple is found dead in their apartment. Christopher Lash, former FBI forensic psychologist, receives an urgent plea to perform an investigation into the deaths. Lash's investigation dredges up the memories of a personal tragedy he has kept at bay for years. His involvement becomes more personal and dangerous than he could have imagined.

Nora Kelly, a young archaeologist in Santa Fe, receives a letter written sixteen years ago, yet mysteriously mailed only recently. In it her father, long believed dead, hints at a fantastic discovery that will make him famous and rich---the lost city of an ancient civilization that suddenly vanished a thousand years ago. Now Nora is leading an expedition into a harsh, remote corner of Utah's canyon country. Searching for her father and his glory, Nora begins t unravel the greatest riddle of American archeology. but what she unearths will be the newest of horrors...