Dan McDevitt battles depression and faces a foundering career when his colleague, Red Prendergast, takes him to South America to confront officials who have cheated his company out of millions. Their mission is to get the money back, but that's the easy part. What happens next turns their lives into a nightmare. By chance, Dan meets his friend and Jesuit priest, Tommy McGrail. Seduced by Tommy, Dan drives him into the backcountry to bring home Father J. C. McAleese, their teacher and mentor. Fleeing marauding soldiers and drug lords, the two companions travel to a secret mountain camp, where Dan discovers Tommy has deceived him. Rather than looking for J. C., they must enter the lair of the dictator Adolpho Streggemann and rescue the hostages he holds. Dan and Tommy face a violent journey that leads from Streggemann's dungeons to a lost city high in the Andes. On the pinnacle of a sacred temple, they struggle with Streggemann for their lives and the lives of the hostages. The real test, however, is to triumph over the demons of their past and wrestle the dark angels of their souls into submission.