Forensic archivist Ann Cunningham, while cataloguing the research papers of brutally murdered Maya epigrapher Robert Ruston, discovers an ancient Maya vulture pectoral on his desk. The pendant starts Ann on a search for its meaning and the reasons for Ruston's ghastly death the summer before.

Since Ruston died in Tikal, Ann begins her enquiries there. Caught in the middle of an indigenous group's struggle to take over the park and two drug cartels' battle for territory, Ann fights for her life as she strives to solve the mysteries, and violence follows her home to Big Grove.