An ancient medallion has turned ten-year-old Hollis Whittaker into the U.S. military's top target. Through the artifact, the boy shares a mind with an alien, and possesses the most advanced brain on the planet, capable of teleporting people through space and time. A Native American woman, her grandfather, a computer nerd, the boy's best friend and an involuntary time traveler will do anything they can to help, but when Hollis' parents disappear, their plan to flee the country and relocate to Central America is scrapped. Then a mysterious insect appears, followed by an old woman bearing another medallion. The Bolivian stranger has been endowed with different capabilities than Hollis. She tells him that he is unwittingly damaging spacetime and that the consequences could be disastrous. Is the woman connected to a 1958 nuclear explosion in the Amazon Jungle? Can she help locate Hollis' parents? Can a ragtag band of misfits protect the boy against the mightiest military in the world? And what's all of this got to do with aliens?