A long-buried family secret resurfaces when one of Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast's most feared enemies shows up on his doorstep as a murdered corpse with a piece of turquoise lodged in the stomach. The gem leads Pendergast to an abandoned mine on the shore of California's desolate Salton Sea. But Pendergast learns there is more at work than a ghastly episode of family history: he is soon stalked by a killer bent on vengeance over an ancient transgression.