Eight-year-old Bobby and his stuffed pterosaur, Tara, go with Bobby's paleontologist parents to check out unearthed dinosaur bones in China. Bobby leaves camp secretly to explore, but is soon lost among the sand dunes. Frightened, tired and thirsty, he spots a light that transports the duo to prehistoric times. Bobby is scared witless when Tara starts growing in his arms and becomes a real-life flying reptile that can talk. Bobby and Tara's survival skills are tested repeatedly as predators try to make the duo their next meal. After months of a roller coaster of emotional highs and lows, Bobby returns to China with Tara - who shrinks back to a stuffed toy. No one believes Bobby's story; not even his parents. Then, as a life-taking sandstorm dies down, the time-tunnel reappears, and a group of paleontologists experience first-hand a world previously only known through old bones. Bobby and his family, along with other dinosaur experts, move from cave-to-cave, with just their wits to keep them alive, day and night. Will it ever be possible to return to China? Will everyone get back alive?