Connecticut middle-schooler Jake and his older sister Kady are transported by a Mayan artifact to a strange world inhabited by a mix of people from long-lost civilizations who are threatened by prehistoric creatures and an evil alchemist, the Skull King.
When his father, is reported murdered in Mexico, supposedly by the husband of his lover, thirteen-year-old Josh refuses to believe it and sets out to get the true story, which he believes involves the 2012 Mayan prophecy, UFOs and alien abduction.