Dr. Ivar Nielsen, the world's foremost authority in pediatric cancer research, has disappeared in Bhutan. His four closest friends-a trauma surgeon, a billionaire businessman, a med school dropout, and a crazed scientist-travel halfway across the globe to find him. There, they fall into a world that is unknown and unknowable, a land whose mythic beauty hides a lurking terror that threatens not only the soul of a nation but the lives of untold thousands of desperately sick children.
As Ivar's friends arrive in Bhutan, what they find there is beyond anything they could have imagined. It seems the country holds a secret that is known only to Ivar, and that secret is at the heart of his disappearance. At the most revered site in all the Himalayas, the world of pioneering cancer research and the art of ancient medicine are about to collide with the designs of a vengeful madman. With the lives of the world's most vulnerable children at stake, events will occur that will change the lives of all involved forever.