Dr. Emanuel Founder, a not­ed Jew­ish archae­ol­o­gist, is on the cusp of a pro­found dis­cov­ery. It is his belief that an ancient Egypt­ian dynasty devel­oped the ​“Vin De Vie,” a sub­stance pur­port­ed to pro­long life. His research leads him to the site of the Three Gorges Dam, Chi­na’s mon­u­men­tal project which is poised to destroy 5,000 years of irre­place­able artifacts.

He is mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­abled but leaves clues for his bril­liant daugh­ter, Danielle, so that she might fol­low in his foot­steps. With the help of a Navy SEAL who she engages for assis­tance, she bat­tles forces from with­in Chi­na and from the Unit­ed States to dis­cov­er the loca­tion and mean­ing of the ​“Vin De Vie.”