A jaded toy designer, Fergus Finney, is unwittingly sucked into the theft of an unusual ancient Maya sculpture from a museum in Copán, Honduras. The artifact--a crystal skull with one ruby eye--trades hands several times as several characters—with conflicting motives—maneuver to obtain it, moving from Honduras to Los Angeles, Puerto Vallarta, Shanghai, Xi'an, and Lahore. Eventually we learn the skull connects the Maya to the Chinese Tang Dynasty and other ancient cultures. The skull, it seems, is not just any skull.