Learning to read -- Early Mayan writing -- The skilled observer from Maxam -- From the time of gods to the time of lords -- Cormorant and her three sons -- Temple of the Sun-eyed shield -- Temple of the Tree of yellow corn -- Lady Shark fin and the evening star -- The rattlesnakes of the City of three stones -- Drawing and designing with words -- Graffiti -- The question of the beginning and end of time -- The mouth of the well of the Itza -- Writing on the pages of books -- Signs of the times -- Moon woman meets the stars -- The power of the great star -- Thunderstorm -- Diagrams of the days -- The alphabet arrives in the Lowlands -- The books of Chilam Balam -- Understanding the language of Suyua -- Song of the birth of the twenty days -- Conversations with madness -- The alphabet arrives in the Highlands -- A way to see the dawn of life -- Blood moon becomes a trickster -- The death of death -- The human work, the human design -- We saw it all, oh my sons -- The count of days -- Man of Rabinal -- Epilogue.