A soul returns to earth to live again in mortal form as daughter of a potentate who rules over the Maya Empire. When the Princess reaches womanhood, the High Priest Cay, her father’s brother, describes to her the destruction of the great land whence her people came; consults Fate regarding her future; gives advice to the Princess, and presents her with a talismanic stone, warning her that its loss might deprive her of her throne.

II.

The Princess is wooed by two of her brothers, who thus become rivals. Her preference is for Coh, whom she weds. Cay prophesies to her that in another earthly incarnation she will again be the sister and wife of him she has chosen for consort.

Aac, the unsuccessful suitor, is filled with jealous wrath.

The sovereign Can, and his brother the High Priest Cay, both pass away. The Can’s eldest son, also named Cay, becomes High Priest; MÓo is Queen of Chichen, and her consort the supreme military chief.

III.

The Prince consort is treacherously slain by his brother Aac, who admits his guilt, and is banished from the royal city, his elder brother warning him that he, Aac, will cause the downfall of the Can dynasty.

IV.

Multitudes assemble to bewail the death of Coh and witness the funeral rites. His ashes are laid to rest and, with his charred heart, deposited in a stone urn, the widowed Queen places her talisman, hoping to thus link her destiny with that of Coh. She builds a monument over his mortal remains and a statue made to his likeness, and erects a memorial hall, upon whose exterior walls she inscribes an invocation to the manes of her consort.

V.

Notwithstanding his crime, Aac ventures to renew his entreaties. Failing in his desire, he brings about a war that causes the ruin of the country and people. Finally the Queen is captured and imprisoned by Aac; but she is rescued by loyal subjects and with them flees to foreign lands.

VI.

Aac, frustrated even in his hour of triumph, becomes a tyrant, oppresses those under his sway, turns a deaf ear to better promptings, and at last is killed in a contest with some of his own subjects, who would restrain him. The famous CAN dynasty is thus brought to its close.

The Queen and her rescuers find tranquillity in the land of the Nile, where, long before, Maya colonists had made their homes. Here, MÓo is received with open arms, and reigns again to the hour of her death.

SEQUEL.

I.

After many centuries have passed away, in a land far distant from that of the Mayas, Death snatches a baby girl from a loving brother. He stays upon earth; his lost sister again takes mortal form in another family; they meet and are united; the prophecy of the High Priest Cay being thus fulfilled. Together they journey to the land of the Mayas where, in the tomb of Coh, they find his heart and MÓo’s talisman, in the urn in which she had deposited it many centuries before.

II.

Among the ruins of his palace Aac’s spirit wanders desolate, pleading for the blessing of forgetfulness in rebirth.

III.

The talisman brings visions of the long ago, voices of the Past; Cay, the Wise, still lives, still leads the way to paths of peace.