When a backhoe blade hits a 5,000-year-old human skull, archaeologist Callie Dunbrook is called to excavate the site. She almost quits when she finds her new partner is her ex-husband, Jake, but it turns out that he is only the beginning of her problems.

In 1922 Egyptologists Radcliffe Emerson and his wife Amelia try unsuccessfully to persuade Howard Carter to give them the digging rights in the Valley of the Kings, so they head for Luxor to search for the tomb of King Tut, only to become involved in a dangerous plot that includes kidnapping, betrayal, and intrigue.

Archaeologist Nina Kirov, attacked after making an astonishing discovery, teams up with Kurt Austin, leader of the National Underwater Marine Agency, to try and learn why archaeologists around the world are being brutally murdered, and together they discover an ancient secret that will challenge some of America's basic historical beliefs.

Photographer Sidra Givens has been hired by Lawrence Haslett, a wealthy archaeologist, to record an expedition to the site of an ancient tribe in the Lost River Valley, a place of violence and greed that threatens her survival.