Tribesmen murdered in Papua New Guinea. A shaman brutally killed in the Amazon. Mercenary commandos infiltrating biolabs across the globe. Billionaire Umberto Morton will stop at nothing to assure he is the first to patent the Fountain of Youth. He has transformed his worldwide pharmaceutical empire to a single effort; he calls it the Methuselah Project.

Welcome to Madagascar: land of exotic spiders, land leeches, jumping rats, crocodiles, hissing cockroaches, and the mysterious predator called the fossa. And maybe, land that is hiding a secret elixir, the Fountain of Youth.

Harvard entomologist, Trygve Lindstrom, has accepted Morton's generous six-month sabbatical to a remote village in Madagascar. For centuries, mariner's reports and missionary accounts claim that these reclusive villagers, the Rock People, may have found the secret to youth and longevity. Lindstrom scoffs at the tales, but leaps at a chance to collect and study rare bugs. In time, he is accepted by the villagers, especially the children who joyfully accompany him on his collecting journeys. Then the unthinkable happens. Morton sends two armed commandoes to Madagascar. Lindstrom is determined to protect his beloved villagers and their sacred secret. But what can he do against armed intruders?