Angry at missing a week of summer video game entertainment, Jesse, a twelve-year-old boy of European/Native American descent, grudgingly follows through with his deceased father's request that he join his Uncle Matthew and cousin Jason at Six Islands, on Georgian Bay, for a special camping trip. Uncle Matthew explains that Jesse's father wanted Jason's vision quest to be his introduction to their native culture. During their first night around the camp-fire, it is Jesse who has a vision, and the adventure begins. Not only is he swept back in time four hundred years, but he is transformed into a majestic, white-tailed deer. He must now survive the expert hunting skills of his ancestors while somehow rescuing his people before they are destroyed by warfare.

The Emerald Key is lost, and James must leave Ireland for Canada to rescue his brother and the treasure. In 1847, after a confrontation with British soldiers, Jamie Galway awakens from a coma to find his brother, Ryan, and the ancient Irish text they had sworn to protect are missing. Jamie learns that his brother has been forced onto a ship bound for Canada. The ancient script, one of the keys to the secret location of a priceless treasure, has gone with him. On the advice of a secretive band of priests called the Brotherhood, Jamie crosses the Atlantic to find his brother and the lost key. Unaware that Jonathon Wilkes, a ruthless treasure hunter is also on the trail, Jamie must find Ryan first, before Wilkes, in his desperation to find the elusive treasure, resorts to murder. Jamie, followed by Wilkes, must race across an ocean and throughout Canada to see who will be the one to claim the Emerald Key.