Elliot Collins finds himself a victim of a deadly desire when he becomes obsessed with Nikki, his dead father's alluring and dangerous mistress

An all-expense-paid vacation to a sun-drenched paradise is shared by a group who all have had bloody nightmares all their lives, and the initial fun is soon replaced by forbidden urges, human sacrifices, and worse

While Durham, North Carolina, epidemiologist Sam Leo uncovers a pattern of unsolved crimes that are apparently rape-murders, his friend, pathologist Stephanie Dixon, discovers a kaleidoscope with erotically magical powers

While doing field work at Teotihuacan in Mexico, anthropologist Dr. Carolyn Burroughs finds a very unusual little statue, a statue which seems to confirm some of her theories about the ancient city. But finding the statue leads in turn to an experience so unbelievable that she tries to dismiss it as the product of a mild sunstroke. But, as she becomes involved in a romantic liason with student Bob Anderson, it gradually becomes apparent to her that the experience was no delusion after all—but she still doesn't suspect that it will in the end lead her to discover things about herself that she could never have imagined. Meanwhile, two psychiatrists, one in New York City and one in California, confer by letter concerning a patient who believes the roots of his current problems lie in a series of surreal adventures he describes to them under hypnosis, events he says took place in Arizona and Mexico in 1949—events which, unknown to them, lie like ticking time bombs in the lives of the other characters. And in the mountains of North Carolina, Televangelist and Christian college founder Hubert McKnight, known to his friends and followers as Huey Mac, looks for ways to expand his growing empire. He has no way of knowing that Carolyn and Bob are on their way to visit his campus, or what incredible horrors will follow when they arrive...

In the aftermath of a violent and bloody raid on a cocaine distribution warehouse in New York City in 1988, INS agent Henry Shelby discovers clues concerning a man who, he believes, might be the kingpin of the operation—and, possibly, an illegal in the US, making him Henry’s business. Following these clues up, he finds that a group of Americans, ten in all, accompanied this man on a flight to somewhere in Latin America, and that none of them ever returned. Henry and his assistant Martha Greene locate the pilot who flew them and, as he insists he cannot tell them where he took the group—it is not, he says, to be found on maps—but can show them, convince him to take them there. They plan on a simple “fly-over,” but their plane develops problems and they are forced to land. Henry soon finds himself not only taken captive by the people of the nearby village, but also immersed in a world he could not have imagined and cannot comprehend. His only thoughts are of escape. At the same time, herpetologist Jeffrey Arnold, engaged in field studies of rattlesnakes in Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, makes his usual stop in the tiny village of San Miguel to visit his friend, Carla Contreras. He finds San Miguel changed since his last visit, and soon begins to suspect that the man behind these changes, Manuel Garibay, is restoring some of the practices of the ancient Aztecs of Mexico. In spite of his misgivings, he finds himself, guided by Carla, drawn more and more into the ways of the village. And, in Pocatello, Idaho, Karen Sullivan wonders about the young man staying at her boarding house, a man who calls himself Tommy Neuse, a man who behaves in strange ways and seems to be able to see the future. When she witnesses him performing some sort of strange ritual in the hills, he leaves; but after he does, a woman turns up looking for him. She kidnaps Karen and takes her to New York City where she is held, she assumes, as some sort of “bait” for Tommy. And in the end, Henry, Jeff, and Karen are all pulled toward San Miguel, toward incredible events none of them could have predicted…

When a beautiful tract of land in the mountains of North Carolina becomes available, Lucas Prescott and his wife Nancy, who is a Cherokee Indian, quickly buy it. It has everything, a high flat surface where a house can be built and a lovely mountain stream in a gorge behind it. As they wait to have a road built and the foundations of their house laid, they, along with five of their friends, camp out on what is to be the home site. Their next-door neighbor, Charles Collingsworth, visits them on their first day there, demanding that they leave at once—and is shocked when they tell him they’ve bought the land, which he hadn’t known was for sale. He offers to buy the land, and when they refuse he warns them about “dangers” in the mountains, and leaves. Exploring the land, the Prescotts and their friends find a deep spot in the stream, a pool very suitable for swimming, and take advantage of it. Down in the water they can see a faint iridescence, but it’s too deep to reach and remains a mystery. As their stay goes on, strange and frightening things begin to happen at night, but no one is harmed and they do not leave—they feel that they are unable to, even though the weird events at night seem threatening. In the daytime they continue to explore the area and discover a cave with human remains in it. Thinking these might be the remains of ancient Cherokees, they call in an expert from the museum in Cherokee, Dr. John Wafford—who quickly informs them that the remains are quite recent, and that their find needs to be investigated by the police, not by an archeologist. But they also ask him to take a look at the odd iridescence in the pool, and from there things take a completely unexpected turn…