Doctor David Freeman is given a strange wooden bead by a dying patient in Memphis, Tennessee, and finds himself pursued by a murderous band of Zulus, thought to be responsible for the gruesome murders of three elderly gentlemen in London, England. Homeland Security agents, Patrick Dartson and Adnan , are assigned the case and discover Freeman's bead to be one of twenty–four passed along to the world's first Scoutmasters in 1919 by Lord Baden–Powell in England. The Zulus are not content to merely steal the talisman, but feel it necessary to ritually behead the owner in order to restore the bead's power. Unclear if others are also in pursuit, the agents devise a plot to capture the Zulus alive during the beheading ritual. But this involves putting Freeman and his girlfriend, Pam Blanchard, in danger.

The tale culminates in a dramatic rescue from an abandoned gas station in Memphis during a raging thunderstorm and tornado, and sets the stage for the second of this four–book series that takes us through London, Ethiopia, and finally, Jerusalem. Though this is a work of fiction, the history of the beads is accurate.