A relaxing meal at a Chinese restaurant turns into an eight day odyssey that begins when mathematics teacher Will Botolph opens his fortune cookie and ends in a plane crash that kills every passenger on Flight 181 but one. When the number 181 begins to appear everywhere - from receipts and bills to t-shirts and mile markers, Will struggles to find the deeper meaning behind the number. His sister, an anthropologist, reveals she has been working on an ancient cipher buried for millennia in the depths of African lore. When 181 turns out the be the key to the ancient cipher, the prophecy is brought to life -- a prophecy dictating Will's every move for the next eight days. As the coincidences pile up, Will must make a decision to fight his inevitable fate, or board a plane that will send him plummeting to his death. Can mathematics explain the lost prophecy? Or are larger, more sinister forces at work?