John James is a writer; his wife has left him. He moves with his two middle-school children to an isolated house off a dirt road in South Carolina. The property has an Indian burial mound, which fascinates his daughter, Louisa, who's entering puberty.

A plane crash. A journey backwards through the life of Harry to a pivotal moment in his childhood.

A knight and his young squire follow an evil heretic in search of a holy relic.