A Navajo teen of Earth with a talent for languages is called upon to learn the language of a teen "foundling." He discovers that the boy is from another world and is not in harmony with Earth. A shaman arranges a kiva ceremony to send both boys to the foundling's home world. They arrive on World on the wrong island, and perhaps 40,000 years in the foundling's past–or future. Their journey to find the boy's home place and time lead them across the sea to the Elven kingdom and, later, the human principality.