Since Christopher Ransom has been living in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan, his most serious commitment has been to his karate dojo. He doesn't just want to be good at it, he wants to be transformed by it. It has been two years since the appalling events on the Khyber Pass - that place without laws where Ransom's own scruples and decency had lapsed. It is through karate that he has regained some control, hoping his disillusionment can be subsumed and his guilt assuaged. But Ransom soon finds himself threatened by everything he thought he had left behind, in the deepening suspense of bizarre events whose consequences he cannot escape...