In the wake of a killer hurricane, Doc Ford heads to Honduras, where his best friend, Tomlinson, crashed his beloved sailboat into a reef off the Mosquito Coast. Tomlinson swears he died in the shipwreck and was brought back to life by a runaway orphan--the direct descendant of the last king of the ancient Mayan people. Corrupt politicians want the child out of the picture before he catalyzes a revolution among the Indigenous population. But the boy, a charismatic twelve-year-old, has gone underground with the help of Tomlinson and a network of street urchins. They're all on the run when Ford arrives and picks up his friend's trail. What no one is prepared for, however, is a cataclysmic earthquake that hits the area.