In 1801 newly elected president Thomas Jefferson, taking office in the burgeoning capital of Washington, D.C., convinces Ethan Gage and Norwegian Magnus Bloodhammer to go on a scouting expedition--one that precedes that of Lewis and Clark--to investigate reports of woolly mammoths and blue-eyed Indians. The pair have their own motive, however, which they neglect to share with the president: a search for the mythical hammer of the Norse god Thor.