Gabrielle Lauten longs to be taken seriously as a scientific journalist. Her big chance comes when she joins an expedition in search of an explorer lost in the deepest cave in the world. When she and her four companions plunge far into the heart of the planet, they discover a lost world and a civilization that doesn't want to be found. Now Gabrielle, along with a professor and his adventurer nephew, along with an ogre and a dwarf, must find a way to escape a world filled with powerful magic, fearsome monsters, and a race of elves who would keep them trapped forever in the Second World.