Ahki, a member of the Moundbuilder Hopewell Culture, struggles to survive in a world beset with natural and human dangers. Meteors and volcanoes have plunged his world into semi-darkness. It's July in the present day Ohio Valley and it's snowing. He is forced to leave his home in the Ohio and Scioto River basins. In this third and final book of this Hopewell trilogy we find Ahki and two companions heading south to find a warmer climate. It is the Sixth Century A.D. and natural catastrophes have plunged the Earth into a nuclear winter. In order to survive, the group is using the river systems of the Southeast to find their way to a settlement called Duhare on the coast.