Dr Louise Lassen, Associate Professor of Classics at Cal Berkeley has a sideline: locating lost artifacts, both real and not-so-real. Hired by a California Indian tribe to find the bones of a long dead Indian girl who once lived in a California Mission, Louise uncovers a tangled conspiracy. And as she continues her hunt, evil forces from the past spill into the present. Her family, and that of her old friend Eli Cummings, are thrown into danger's way. And along the way, Louise finds herself falling, not only into the pit of deception and deep magic, but also into love with Eli.