The great fire of 1835 burned most of New York City's wooden downtown. Like many people, Archie Prescott thought he'd lost everything -- his home was a smoldering ruin, his dead wife's body lay at his feet, and next to her was the corpse he assumed was his daughter. It seemed like the end of everything. But it was only the beginning.
Goaded on by the publisher of the New York Herald, Archie runs afoul of one of P.T. Barnum's former sideshow workers. The carney has used an ancient book to resurrect a Mesoamerican god -- a chacmool who plans to use the blood of Archie's still-living daughter to bring about the end of humanity.
In the midst of ancient magic and muderous conspiracies, Archie finds himself with the power to save the world or drown it in sacrificial blood... but first he has to stop mourning his daughter and undertake a grim cross-country journey to save her.
