Tyler Weldon has a big job in the big city, though whether he's happy doing that job is a question he can't answer...or maybe doesn't want to. One night he arrives home to find a letter from a former high school flame, Karen Donnelly, telling him that their beloved old history teacher, George Swift, has vanished. So begins a contentious and (though neither young person will admit it) romantically-charged journey that will take Tyler and Karen halfway round the globe: from their small hometown of Summerville, Georgia, to the quiet suburbs of Washington, D.C., to a bustling port in Italy and, finally, to a destination unlike any other on Earth. Along the way they'll meet a cast of memorable characters, including "Meteor" Mavis Parker, a woman so fearful of being struck by a falling meteorite that she seldom ventures outdoors; disgraced former archaeologist and gentleman's club connoisseur Reb Callahan; the Red Lady, an elegant, elderly woman who is a living legend in Europe's illegal antiquities trade; and Gus Mooney, a greedy corporate chieftain with a reputation for playing rough. But towering above them all is the spirit of George Swift himself: a proud, determined, unyielding man whose greatest strengths are his greatest flaws, and whose desire to fulfill his long-held ambitions may well threaten the world.
