In the spring of her thirty-third year, Maggie O'Toole Loveless's staid life swings into a wild new rhythm when her philandering husband leaves her and her beloved Great-Aunt Emily, an international courtesan, dies from injuries received in a car crash. To fulfill her aunt's last wish, Maggie takes Emily's ashes to the Yucatan and the famed ruins of Chichen Itza. There she encounters IxChel, the Moon Goddess, who claims her as a daughter. Maggie calls on IxChel and her great-aunt's spirit to help her meet the challenges of this strange journey: a search for Emily's abandoned lover, an encounter with a prowling jaguar, and a near-rape by a corrupt customs officer. In the midst of her struggles, Maggie meets the lover of her dreams, promised to her long ago by the same Moon Goddess who now initiates her into ancient Mayan ways and helps her find a new and empowering sense of self.