Cheyenne, 11, and her brother Austin, 13, are moving. Again. While their mother tries to land an acting job in New York, they are forced to stay with relatives in a staid retirement community. Just when eternal boredom seems certain, a well-meaning elderly neighbor gives them each a bag of Mason jars and points the way to a nearby stream teeming with crawfish and insects. As the two children set out to collect bugs, they stumble upon a mysterious waterfall with the power to transport them to another world, the bizarre and sometimes treacherous realm of Kizmet. Greeted by a new friend, embroiled in an old prophecy, and forced to rely upon their own wits and each other, Cheyenne and Austin must topsy-turtle surf across the Serengeti Sea, spelunk in coruscating caverns of ice, seek out a wayward stag beetle, and duel with the death-dealing Glad Eaters in order to save Kizmet and unlock a family secret.