There are people who have achieved immortality, living guides who have always worked behind the scenes to keep humanity on track. Keeping their existence a secret for many centuries, now as humanity faces its most critical moment, their presence is revealed. One of the immortals, a woman who is 3500 years old, tells us how she achieved the state that defies death. Beginning her quest in the ancient city of Athens around 500 BC, we only get to know of her immortality as she herself learns her true identity. Hers is an inner journey of spirituality as well, presenting a worldwide spiritual path that stretches across many regions of the ancient world. Peppered with stories within the story, other travelers tell their own tales of spiritual events that defy ordinary explanation.

At the tale’s beginning, Cassandra, the main character, is a twelve-year old, Athenian girl who comes regularly to a square in the marketplace where philosophers discuss their ideas. Nostranda, an Egyptian philosopher, talks about people she's encountered who have conquered death. Cassandra is captivated. She comes day after day to listen to Nostranda. During an embarrassing moment when an older student calls attention to the young girl's silence, Nostranda walks over to the girl and tells her that the whole time, she has been speaking to Cassandra in particular, that the girl has always been part of their band and always will be. Nostranda holds Cassandra in a mother's embrace and as she does, Nostranda’s feet, then torso, then head completely vanish.

This begins Cassandra's search for the immortals and the meaning of Nostranda's strange strange comments and disappearance