Story's synopsis

Max is happiest when he is in the bayou, paddling his kayak among the herons and turtles. 

His mother, Sophie, is a faith-filled French woman. She raises her son according to her wedding vows.

 

But her husband has changed. Neals, a therapist, aspires to become a popular life-coach. He advocates self-improvement away from moral and faith. 

 

So, Max’s attachment to the beliefs of his youth is fading. At school, his friends are lost in their screens. One day, Max snaps at his father and flees into the bayou outside the levee that protects the big city of New Orleans. 

 

Max comes upon a shack where a strange mask dominates. That’s when two hunters seize him.

 

They have been looking for Max’s grandfather (Henri) who took to France the famous crown of Our Lady of Prompt Succor.

 

In France, Henri has stopped communicating.  Max rushes there to find him before the sorcerer Lachlan and his mute henchman reach him.

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When Max arrives at his grandfather’s home, he finds five boys. The troop races to the mountain in search of Henri and the crown.

 

Online, Max’s father follows their adventures. He slowly realizes that true joy won’t be attained through self-improvement but by a deeper quest requiring conversion of the heart. 

 

In France, Christmas is approaching.  The teens are homesick.

 

Finally, they find Henri in a monastery. He has lost his memory. The boys become aware the crown is more than jewels.