An eminent scientist disappears while on an expedition to the Amazon; several of his colleagues return to the West in a trance-like state, talking of a mysterious lost civilisation who seem to have been more advanced than our own and who built a machine which, if it exists, could solve all the world's energy problems. A machine they called the Eye of the Sun God. Meanwhile ambitious young oil troubleshooter Caroline Kent accepts a posting to a refinery in the troubled South American state of Camaragua. There, she finds herself drawn into a battle of wits with ruthless drug baron Otto Viellar, who wants his products to be the country's chief source of revenue and sees International Petroleum Ltd as a threat to his interests. But in this potentially bloody and vicious struggle far more is at stake than the future of IPL Camaragua; for Viellar, too, has found out about the Eye of the Sun God, and it has other uses than peaceful ones. If it falls into his hands, it could give him the power to rule the entire world...