Pristine Loon Lake holds a secret. When a fortune in U.S. twenty dollar, gold Liberty coins, originally belonging to Northern Mississippi Indian tribes, vanishes in 1868, it sets off a one hundred forty-five year chain of events from North Central Minnesota to the exotic Cayman Islands and a Columbian jail cell. The legend of the lost gold survives generations of Indians, treasure hunters and curiosity seekers. A felon tells the tale to his prison cellmate before disappearing from his home in the summer tourist town of Destiny, Minnesota. Anthropologist, Dr. Elizabeth Pike believes her mother, oblivious to its true value, acquired a copper vase created by an Anishinaabe Chief which may hold a diagram to a cedar chest containing the gold Liberties but her mother suffers an accident - if it was an accident. Now, her father, and his mentor, a former CIA operative, hold the key to the gold's location only they don't know it. Meanwhile, a shadowy, multi-millionaire, Vietnam veteran headquartered in Austin, Texas has labored for more than thirteen years to track down the copper vase and will stop at nothing to get his hands on the gold and take back what he believes he's owed; the life of his comrades and his own humanity. However, his two most trusted associates, his beautiful mistress and his right-hand executive may have different plans. Does the copper vase exist? Does it contain a map? Does the gold exist and if so, who can get to it first: the anthropologist, the Indians, the government, the former CIA operative, the veteran or someone else ... less obvious? Everyone with any information about the lost coins seems to disappear.