The story begins with a scene off the coast of North Carolina in 1813 where a mystery began.

From there, in present day Wyoming, two friends who have not seen each other in several years are off an excursion to cover a political meeting that Mike Hamilton's boss has sent him to cover for the small town newspaper that he works for. At the venue, Mike meets a beautiful woman who seeks him out to share something, although the 'something' is pretty vague. She leaves an impression upon him, and a mysterious note, that will be hard for him to forget.

A tragic event occurs that leaves Mike completely unprepared for what will come next. He shares with a television reporter what he heard and saw, but that story will only be aired once as it does not fit into the narrative of those that control such things. After being interviewed by the FBI, and told what he can and cannot say in public, he is contacted by Janice Felton, a world-renown financial icon, who invites him to her ranch in California for an interview. While there, he learns that she really is not interested in conducting an interview. Instead, she has an assignment of her own invention that she wants him to pursue.

On a far-away island in the Caribbean, Leia Franklin, a woman who went to grade school with Mike, learns of his involvement with the event in Wyoming through the media attention surrounding it. While Mike is travelling to California for his interview with Janice Felton, Leia attempts to contact him. After his meeting with Janice Felton, they finally do connect, and something is kindled between them.

Leaving California the following day, Mike is driving his old Volvo through the Sierra Nevada Mountains in an attempt to make a leisurely trip while deciding how to approach the assignment that Janice Felton had given him. He has no idea of where all of this will take him.

Interlaced with the unfolding story in the present day, there are vignettes of other actors, both in the past and in the present, who will be converging with Mike as he embarks on the greatest adventure of his previously uneventful life to a place where he had never been before.