The evidence of a fabulous ancient past is about to be lost forever with the death of an enigmatic recluse. The last people to witness this mysterious civilisation's power were blown up by an explosion that baffled and alarmed the authorities who attempted to commit its existence to oblivion. Dr Duncan Parfait is charismatic, a little shambolic, and totally convinced that there could be no intelligent culture pre-dating the present one. The unequivocal proof that there was sets his preconceptions and world on its head. Without giving a thought to it being too true to be good, he sets out to excavate submerge cities and write a book which contradicts all those assumptions made by historians and archaeologists that went before.