It is September 1973. Brilliant young philosopher Phillip Kinsella, fleeing the political unrest of Chicago's anti-war protests and the social turbulence of racial demonstrations, arrives at the Sorbonne in Paris to begin what he believes to be a two-year postgraduate assignment. His intellectual pursuits, however, are soon disrupted by his new friends in his Latin Quarter neighborhood, and, as their mysteries are revealed, love, jealousy, and even Phillip's secrets unravel in violence.

Ultimately cast adrift in Paris, a disillusioned Phillip is offered a research opportunity by an aging scientist, Professor Cortez. But the tranquility of this Navajo professor's summer institute in New Mexico evaporates quickly as a mélange of science, heroism, and superstition intertwine. Inevitably drawn with Professor Cortez and his twin brother, Victor, into a vortex of violence in the dangerous mountain elevations of South America and an occluded realm where betrayal is exposed, Phillip is pushed to the limits of his faith. Now he must choose between his convictions and the Cortez brothers' myth to save their lives and his own.

In this tale of adventure, the world of academic idealism collides with the human quest for earthly treasure as a philosopher's beliefs are tested in ways he never could have imagined.