Z: Beyond the Xingu is based on a true story of the search for a lost Amazonian civilization, interweaving the lives of two people who inhabit different worlds and eras. Percy Harrison Fawcett, the prototype for Indiana Jones, was a British Army officer posted to South America in the early 1900s to demark national boundaries during the rubber conflicts. Falling under the seductive and mystical spell of the rainforests, and drawing on his lifelong interest in archaelogy, he finds evidence of hidden ruins and becomes obsessed with belief in an ancient city he called "Z." Sylvia, a modern-day American, represents the many people whose lives have been strangely affected by the explorer and his quest. Her personal search for truth and meaning in Fawcett's mystery leads her to Brazil, where she, too, encounters the unexplainable and confronts elemental fears.