Well-versed in Mesoamerican archaeology, Tierney, during his time working for the U.S. Forest Service, spent four winters in Mexico, Central and South America visiting ancient Amerind ruins (1962–66), photographing many of the most remote mountain and jungle sites.

Finally, in the ruins of a lost city in the region of Azcapotzalco in Mexico, he makes a discovery for which a Midwestern millionaire, J. Cornelius Wasserman, is willing to pay a fortune.

For Kerrick, a bitter American ex-patriate, it is a chance to retire once and for all from his dangerous profession - and an opportunity to return home to see the woman he left behind years before.

Various of the evil characters are servitors of the Primal Ones, incredibly ancient and powerful entities which sowed life throughout the universe and caused it to evolve both intelligence and the capacity to suffer.

Michael A. Morrison, reviewing the novel for Necrofile found that the novel failed to convince, though stating that "Tierney is a fine writer, with a special gift for evocative descriptions of place, and he makes a more serious effort at characterization than one is accustomed to in modern Mythos yarns.