U.S. Secret Service Agent H. Hunter Mahoy has been given a dream assignment by President James Weber. He's training in the military's newest and most sophisticated short-takeoff and vertical landing fighter jet, an F-35-B Lightning. His wife, Morgan, drops him at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas on the morning of his fifth day. That afternoon, he and the ninety-million-dollar aircraft mysteriously disappear while flying through a slot in a mountain range. The search is on to find a crash site. Locating the wreckage should be easy: Major Brian Connolly, Hunter's flight instructor, witnessed the incident. And it occurred in broad daylight. Even so, nothing can be found.

Hunter Mahoy is at a loss to understand why he can't raise Major Connolly-or anyone else-on the radio. Then things get worse. Most of his instrumentation isn't working: he has no navigation system, no GPS coordinates, no radar, no communications, and no digital compass. He recognizes several landmarks but can't find Las Vegas or Nellis Air Force Base. It's weird.

He ends up landing in the desert on the backside of Mount Davidson, outside Virginia City, Nevada. He hikes to where he has a commanding view of the western town. With just one look, he instantly knows that he has a serious problem: somehow, he's traveled back in time to the mining days of the Comstock lode in the mid-to-late 1800s.