Outdoor writer and adventurer Sydney Wilder is comfortable in her cabin in the Ozark Mountains. A tall slender man of indeterminate age and background causes Wilder to change her whole schedule and head for Colorado. Akiela, the mysterious hermit of the Ozarks, visits in the dead of the night and tells Wilder that he has an assignment for her. He asks Wilder to go to Colorado to assist Keith Linn with a dangerous situation brought on by the greed of an unscrupulous land developer, smuggler of white slaves, and drug dealer. Akiela has powers that Sydney Wilder doesn't begin to understand, but she accepts him as a friend. Akiela leaves a small leather bag of gold, and a map of a mysterious trail in the Rocky Mountains. He tells Wilder she will know what to do when she arrives at her Uncle Keith's ranch. When she sees the bag of gold and map Akiela left on her bedside table, she remembers the previous night's visitor and what he had said. Sydney Wilder packs up her Jeep Commander and heads west to Colorado, and begins the most exciting and dangerous adventure she has ever been involved in up to this point in her career as a writer and adventurer. The Ancient Ones she is to meet have strange powers with the ability to disappear in one place and appear somewhere else in another form. With outlaws led by a dangerous banker/politician following Wilder and her small band of adventurers, the Ancient Ones slow down the pursuers by appearing to them as a great snow owl, a very large rattlesnake, and a giant white wolf. Many other animals of the great Rocky Mountains watch over and protect Wilder and her adventurous Colorado uncle and friends. Who are these people she is to meet? Where do they originate? How did they accumulate a treasure, and why would The Ancient Ones give it to save Keith Linn's ranch? What are these strange powers and abilities they seem to possess? Mystery and adventure awaits Sydney Wilder again and she is again ready for the challenge.