As Europe suffered through the Dark Ages, the culture of the Maya of Central America was reaching its apex. Through dramatizations and recreations, this film illustrates scenes from traditional Maya life, the period of the Spanish invasion, the nineteenth-century explorers who first documented the existence of Maya cities, and the discovery of the tomb of seventh-century ruler King Pacal at Palenque. The film considers remarkable Maya achievements in art, architecture, the calendar and astronomical observations, and writing through the lens of their great city-temples of Chichén Itzá, Tulum, and Palenque. The work of various despoilers, explorers, and archeologists, from Franciscan bishop Diego de Landa and the lost Maya Codex, the Englishmen Frederick Catherwood and Alfred Maudslay in preserving images of carvings, which have been damaged or lost, to Giles Healey and the story of the spectacular Bonampak murals, is also detailed. This film invites the world to ponder the achievements of the Maya civilization and to speculate on the reasons for its demise.