Orphans on the run - Kerra McConnell and her younger brother, Brock - embark upon an extraordinary time-travel adventure between their modern world and ancient America.  Aided by relatives that she hasn't seen since she was five, Kerra learns of a secret passageway to a tropical world in 19 A.D.  Intensified by an earthquake, this time vortex threatens to draw all modern characters into a massive battle between a tribe called Nephites and ancient sorcerers known as robbers of Gadianton.  Their only hope may reside with an alert, intense young Nephite warrior named Kiddoni, who understands what it takes to forestall certain destruction, and keep it from descending upon Kerra's family, and their small western town.