Lee Ingalls is living in Kokand, the capital of an obscure Central Asian republic. Her husband, a US Commerce Department consultant, introduces local entrepreneurs, only recently freed from Soviet rule, to the joys of capitalism. But as a scholar of the ancient Vedic language that was spoken in the region five thousand years earlier, Lee came to Kokand with other expectations. Now she is bored by her husband's ambition and disgusted by the amorous President of the republic, whom she is tutoring in English. Then an incredibly ancient artifact is discovered on the floor of the Aral Sea, and she is plunged into an adventure that calls on all her fortitude and knowledge. Ancient myth becomes current reality as she transforms her life in an effort to save the world.