Alysha Grant, exploring in Tibet has stumbled onto the find of a lifetime: a dinosaur flash-frozen in a cave. Taking what she can carry back with her to the US, she begins to recruit an expedition to quietly recover more of the find. An encounter with a party from the Chinese Army, shortly before finding the cave, leaves them with nowhere to go except through a strange, shimmering portal.

In Skartaris, life continues as it always has for Travis Morgan. But beasts are being driven from their homes, and waves of refugees are flowing into Shamballah. A new god and his queen have come to power in the Shadow Kingdom with the power of deadly weapons behind them.