One small handwritten letter, sent from a dark, remote corner of the planet and lost in the system for 60 years, is about to change the entire human race.

Outside Denver, Colorado, Joe Rickards stands over a small aircraft wreckage, studying burnt remains still smoldering in a field of freshly fallen snow. He's an investigator for the NTSB, working to carefully roll back the last several hours and identify the cause of the accident.

But this time, he can't.

The details behind this tragedy don't add up. Unlike every other investigation of Joe's career, the facts make no sense. Each new piece of information only makes the accident more mysterious, and more baffling.

Why would a person receive an age-old letter and suddenly disappear into the thick of night...paying to be flown out of a closed airport in the worst possible weather conditions by a pilot who hadn't had his hand on the stick in years? With the only surviving relative insisting her grandfather would never have climbed into a small airplane in the first place, even in perfect weather.

A bizarre string of events culminating in a horrible accident unlike anything Rickards has experienced. Leaving his only hope at understanding it in the hands of the victim's sole remaining relative. Beginning with how a mysterious letter could turn up after being lost in the system for 60 years. Sent by someone who should have already been long-dead.

A single letter Joe Rickards is about to discover, with a secret that will change the entire world.