Mexico, 1517. The Aztec capital is awash with fear and rumours. A strange figure has been seen running through the streets. A being with the face of a snake, his body covered in glittering green plumage: Quetzalcoatl - the Feathered Serpent. Is it an omen? Or is it the god himself, come to warn of impending disaster? Yaotl, the Chief Minister's slave, has more immediate matters to worry about. Engaged in a desperate search for his son, he's on the run from his vengeful master, the all-powerful Lord Feathered-in-Black. Attempting to escape his master's bloodthirsty warriors, Yaotl stumbles on a dismembered, unrecognisable corpse. As he pieces together the clues to who the dead man was and how he died, Yaotl finds himself drawn into an affair of greed, jealousy and lust among the ancient, secretive society of the feather workers, the Aztec's foremost craftsmen.