A partially decomposed body of a young woman is discovered in a park in
Pasadena, California. The woman was strangled but not sexually
assaulted. The police suspect she might be a missing heiress who
disappeared over a year ago, but dental records prove them wrong. But
who is she? And is there a link between the heiress and this corpse? The
celebrated detective Virgil Tibbs reshapes the known facts regarding
these two women and discovers astonishing connections. His quest leads
him around the world to Katmandu where, beneath the searing "eyes of
Buddha" at the famed Monkey Temple, he learns the truth in a striking
denouement.