Max and Hannah love maize; they eat corn on the cob in the summer and like to make popcorn, too. But, they have a lot to learn about maize and all its mysteries. The twins' grandfather has a great story to tell them. The Mystery of the Maize shows the development of maize as it links the past to the present.

Twins Heron and Muskrat learn about maize from their grandfather, who gives Heron a bone carving of four people with maize plants, and a thousand years later, Hannah finds the carving as she and her brother Max are learning about corn, or maize, from their own grandfather.