Twenty-seven-year-old Sheila Culdeski has just lost both her boyfriend and her job as a CPA. While interviewing for one job after another, she doesn’t believe her life can get any worse. Trying to maintain a positive attitude, she impulsively stops at a yard sale near her home in a Los Angeles suburb, where a metallic jewelry box catches her eye.

As she leaves with her five-dollar purchase, a strange man rushes up to her car and offers her as much as $300 for the unique box. When Sheila refuses, the stranger warns her that her life is now in danger. She has no idea of the history or the power of the jewelry box.

When a simple trip to the mall with a friend yields a bizarre attack by an intergalactic creature, the stranger-a man named Darok, who turns out to be 3,500 years old-rescues her. Sheila begins to understand this is not a battle she can fight on her own. Many evil forces seek the power of the jewelry box. Sheila and Darok must stay steps ahead, and he believes the odds against their survival are substantial. Sheila finds herself tested beyond all endurance and measuring her life’s worth against the survival of a doomed planet.