14-year-old Will Burrows has little in common with his strange, dysfunctional family. In fact, the only bond he shares with his eccentric father is a passion for archaeological excavation. So when his dad mysteriously vanishes, Will is compelled to dig up the truth behind his disappearance. He unearths the unbelievable: a subterranean society that time forgot. "The Colony" has existed unchanged for a century, but it's no benign time capsule of a bygone...

As fourteen-year-old archaeologist Will and his friends plummet down a subterranean pore, they face deadly creatures and discover a strange fungal shelf, which not only reveals artifacts from ancient civilizations, but clues to a lost land at the end of the Earth.

Will Burrows believes he is safe at the very center of the earth, in a world that no one knows exists, but the Styx are close behind and will follow him anywhere, while on the surface, Drake and some unlikely allies unearth some critical secrets.