Summoned to a remote Tibetan village from the hidden lamasery where he
lives, Shan Tao Yun, formerly an investigator in Beijing, must save a
comatose man from execution for two murders in which the victims' arms
have been removed. Upon arrival, he discovers that the suspect is not
Tibetan but Navajo. The man has come with his niece, seeking the
ancestral ties between their people and the ancient Bon. The recent
murders are only part of a chain of deaths. Together with his friends,
the monks Gendun and Lokesh, Shan sets out to solve the riddle of Dragon
Mountain, the place "where the world begins."