Dr. Alice Cameron is a famous scientist--an archeoastronomer--devoted to
studying ancient Mayan culture. The era driving her career has always
been the end of the Mayan baktun, so she's on the Yucatan Peninsula in
December 2012 with her daughter Nixie...and so are fellow serious
scholars, plenty of end-of-the-world crazies, and--at an international
summit--the President of the United States and other heads of state.
When Nixie disappears into the past in the Mayan jungle, rationality and
mysticism, the present and the past start merging. Meanwhile, Alice is
drawn into the machinations of statecraft by an old friend. A savvy
scientist, a handsome dreadlocked time-traveler, an ancient shaman, a
noble Mayan couple, a computer nerd, and an 11-year-old traverse the
past and present in a search for the meaning of life and a way to save
two worlds.