In 1835, with much of New York City's downtown destroyed by fire, Archie Prescott, who lost his wife and supposedly his daughter in the conflagration, runs afoul of one of P. T. Barnum's ex-sideshow workers, who uses an ancient text to resurrect a Mesoamerican god that plans to use the blood of Archie's still-living daughter to bring about the end of the world. Reprint.