Thirteen-year-old Jason Sorenson has nothing left to lose. Following a tragic car accident, his family is dead, and his leg is mangled. The courts send him to Washington to live with an uncle he's never met. To him, Washington is a strange and unfamiliar place, and it certainly isn't easy to make new friends ... until he stumbles upon the ruins of an ancient Native American village nearby.
So begins an unplanned journey for Jason, one that won't be easy. The Native American culture is even more foreign to him than the state of Washington. When he meets Crystal Clearwater, things come into focus, but Jason can't tell if it's his newfound knowledge of her culture or the girl herself. Things get more complicated when some of the bullies in her tribe don't take too kindly to an outsider falling for one of their people.
Together, Jason and Crystal unearth artifacts that seem almost magical. They also stumble over human bones, the discovery of which opens up a whole lot of questions for the locals. As time passes, Jason needs Crystal's help to make sense of it all. He also forges an unexpected bond with his Uncle Jake in the process. Maybe Washington isn't so bad after all, and maybe treasure is not always buried in the ground.