While studying the classics in Greece, Adrienne came across accounts of an ancient creature, sometimes called "bird-monster," griffin, or Minotaur. Adrienne travels from Greece to the Gobi Desert in search of where an ancient race of fair-haired and pale nomadic horsemen called the Scythians hid their gold - gold that was rumored to be guarded by griffins. Along the way, she encounters Jack Horner and Roy Chapman Andrews (real-life Indiana Jones and Dr. Alan Grant).