Cathy, a young student, has an appointment with destiny. Unaware of her alien heritage, she is befriended by Eqin, a visiting scholar, and his colleague Hasan. When Eqin unexpectedly disappears—apparently dead—she is left alone, haunted by inexplicable visions and doubting her own sanity. Years later her path again crosses that of Hasan whose personal quest for power and glory causes her life to take an unexpected turn for the worse. After a brush with death, she is smuggled to an alien facility by Eqin and his sister S'Tha. Hunted by Hasan and subjected to secret experiments by S'Tha, it seems that her fate is sealed. Only when she is transported off-world by Anya, a Truth Seeker, into the safety of Atuk's Sanctuary, does she learn the truth about herself. But is she really who the Antediluvians believe her to be?