While on a long-awaited vacation in Fiji, Maggie and Brad Montana, fledgling associate professors from a small college in Americaas heartland, find a mysterious pearl-black cone resting at the wateras edge on a deserted atoll. The tiny vessel reluctantly discloses two strange instruments that lead them on a worldwide search of discovery. Located in the Northern Territory of Australia, the alien-looking landscape of stacked granite boulders, known as the Devilas Marbles, is the perfect backdrop for the culmination of the Montanaas quest. Backpack Bill, a charismatic local tour guide from Tennant Creek, outfits the Montanas and situates them for their first and, as it turns out, their last evening in the desolate Outback region. The technologies of the twenty-first century, coupled with Maggie and Bradas relentless pursuit to uncover the secret of the cone, lure them into a baneful trap where they unwittingly fall prey to an ancient alien snare.