Around the world, from San Francisco to the Indian city of Varanasi, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Taklimakan Desert, forces of unimaginable violence are being unleashed - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, deadly hailstorms. Each disaster preceded by the mysterious appearence of strange, dazzling lights.

Portents.

Signs of a coming titanic struggle between the forces of darkness and light. A struggle involving a hermit in the remote Scottish Highlands with an extraordinary secret. Two very special children who unknowingly hold the future of the planet in their hands. And the grotesque matriarch of a bizarre New Orleans cult who is determined to destroy them...