The book begins with the collision of the ships SS Andrea Doria and MS Stockholm and moves to modern times with gun fights and chases from Boston and Washington DC to Africa and Mexico.

After the collision, a waiter aboard the Andrea Doria witnesses the murder of several men beside an armored vehicle in the hold of the ship.

Years later, Marine archaeologist Nina Kirov is exploring underwater ruins off an isolated stretch of the coast of Morocco.

Via computer she contacts a friend, another archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, who confirms that nearly identical stone heads have been viewed in the Yucatán.

Kurt Austin, a diver from an offshore NUMA ship shares his auxiliary oxygen tank and saves her from certain death.

Back in the USA, a meeting which includes Kurt, Joe, and Nina investigates the surprising number of archaeological teams that have disappeared.