It was common knowledge that Francisco de Coronado, sixteenth century explorer of what was now the American southwest, had found no fabled Cibola or Seven Cities of Gold. The only gold that native peoples had was their corn. Over the ensuing years until the present one of 1881 there had been more than one hoax map of lost treasure. When Dr. Ellery Delamar, Wizard and Archaeologist, is shown a map by A.J. Lutterworth, American railroad tycoon, Ellery dismisses the map as just another hoax and does not want to get involved with a treasure hunt. After all, he is an Egyptologist and knows little about the American southwest. But a generous contribution to Ellery's University from Lutterworth and a chance to work with a man he has long admired, Dr. Marcus Beck, changes Ellery's mind. With a hastily assembled staff of his sister and two of their nephews, their dragons and familiars, they are soon actively hunting for treasure in New Mexico. One complication after another takes place: a cave-in, a clutch of dragon eggs, a mystery surrounding the local dragons, kidnappings, a grisly discovery in a cave, ghosts, and worst of all, black magicians whose evil must be destroyed before they can harm a young woman that Ellery's nephew Nicholas has learned to care for. And then it begins to seem as if there may be a treasure after all.....