After his genius father's untimely death, James Mathews falls into a bit of a funk until he discovers his father's last invention, a portal made of pure energy through which things disappear, but never reappear. The teen feels drawn to the lab beneath his father's home in Nevada City, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He can't seem to stay away, and one day, while messing around with the portal, he is pulled into it in full view of his younger brother, Tyson. James is lost in a world with which he has no connection. He meets a large extended family that takes him in and meets their leader, a man referred to as a "prophet" who tell him he is on a journey designed especially for him by God. Back at home the Mathews family is in a panic until a stranger appears who wants to help, Jason Mackenzie. Together with his grandfather and an old friend, Jason works to uncover where James went, and how to get him home. Every day he is gone, is another day he has to survive in the past. Can they bring him back in time?