When a headless corpse is found by a prison work gang on a windy Tibetan mountainside, veteran police inspector Shan Tao Yun might seem the perfect man to solve the crime -- except Shan himself is in a Tibetan prison for offending the Party in Beijing. Desperate to close the case before an American tourist delegation arrives, the district commander has no choice but to grant a temporary release from prison to the brilliant and embittered Shan, while confronting him with an ultimatum: solve the case fast and in a politically expedient fashion or the Tibetan priests in Shan's work brigade will be punished.

When the early evidence shows that the killer was an ancient Buddhist demon and party officials try to thwart Shan's investigation by arresting an innocent monk, Shan is thrown into a maelstrom of political and religious intrigue involving American mining interests, Tibetan sorcerers, corrupt party officials, a secret illegal monastery and the Buddhist resistance movement.

Set against the astonishing landscape of this beleaguered Himalayan country and the epic struggle of the Tibetan people, Shan's difficult and twisted journey to the truth becomes a passage through the many layers of tragedy inflicted by China on Tibet and its people.