An overheard plot to do away with an unwanted son-in-law begins this mesmerizing and astonishing journey into the Aztec underworld - a world of magical dreams and mysterious healing, shadowed by a deadly justice. Aided by two local curanderos, or healers, American anthropologist Timothy Knab embarks on a spellbinding adventure of sacred Atzec rituals and mystical dream journeys into Talocan, the underworld of gods and lost souls. Along the way, he begins to understand the Aztec belief system and the art of healing, as well as the dark past of San Martin - infamous throughout Mexico for its brujos, or witches, and a mysterious "War of Witches" fifty years earlier that may never have ended. Capturing time and place as surely as a jeweler sets a stone, Timothy Knab chronicles his spiritual immersion into the contemporary Aztec culture and, ultimately, his remarkable transformation into an authentic curandero.