5500 BC. The Atlans, fearing a prophesied cataclysm, send expeditions to start new colonies in Mesopotamia and Egypt. Their journeys are tumultuous and enlightening, but the country that so entices them is suffering under the despotic power of Seth, who has blood on his hands; that of High Lord Osiris. His regal widow, Isis, flees to Ethiopia with their son, who ultimately, with the help of the Ethiopians, reclaims his rightful place on the throne of his fatherland.2004. Isis reaches across the millennia and enters the soul of the beautiful Maria Martinez, Mexican and Maya. Maria's fate is inextricably tied up with one Richard McKay, an amateur archaeologist poised to head significant expeditions to Indonesia and Egypt, to discover and decipher the hieroglyphic warnings, to unearth the artifacts left behind by the tragic Osiris and his descendants and to establish the link between the Egyptians and the Olmecs.Isis may be present in spirit, but even her wisdom and warnings, communicated via Maria, cannot quell the dangers and violent horror that will dog these expeditions every inch of the way. Pirates, bloodshed, terrorist sects, angry nationalists and jealous fellow archaeologists all pave the way to a gory yet ultimately triumphal climax.