During yet another move to another Marine Corps base, a browbeaten and dispirited fourteen-year-old yearns for the stability and solace of a settled and happy homelife. But when a pair of peculiar people in the new town confront him with secrets about his family's past, his reality is threatened. To get to the truth and get back to normal, he'll have to defy his father and enter an exotic, ancient world where the fantastical is the norm and danger is a way of life.