Christmas Eve, 1999. A comet, satellite, or perhaps the finger of God, rends the night sky above Israel and rains fiery destruction on a top-secret military research facility in the Negev. Only one mute and naked survivor struggles from the ruins in the aftermath of the explosion, then vanishes into the desert unnoticed.

Drawn by the rumor of a Jordanian SCUD attack, a World News Network team producing a Millennium Eve special in Jerusalem races to the scene and stumbles upon the story of their lives, involving veteran reporter Jonathan Feldman and his cameraman Breck Hunter in perhaps the greatest story ever told.

Throughout the final year of the century, messianic sects have descended upon the great religious centers of Rome, Jerusalem, and Salt Lake City to await the coming of the millennium, convinced that the Last Days are at hand. Now, in the fulfillment of prophesy, at the stroke of midnight, New Year's Eve, a beautiful and mysterious young woman appears on the steps of the ancient Israelite Temple of the Messiah just as a violent earthquake rocks Jerusalem and sets off aftershocks felt even in the Vatican.