It all begins in Bombay, when George Sansi gets a bizarre visit from his former boss, the powerful joint commissioner of crime branch, Narendra Jamal. With the look of a desperate man, Jamal confides that the government's plans for Goa -- the so-called Ganja Coast, a decadent beach community where aging American hippies and drug dealers mingle -- will create an opportunity for Indian-style corruption that staggers even the cynical Sansi. The man who stands to steal the most is Jamal's rival, the Minister for Economic Development, Rajiv Banerjee. Jamal wants Sansi to travel to Goa and dig up the evidence that will bring Banerjee down.

Most of the burned out inhabitants of Goa seem blissfully unaware of the coming changes. But evil soon becomes manifest, shattering the hippies' view of Goa as an innocent paradise: the morning after the latest beach party, the strangled body of a child is found floating in the waves.

With his American lover, newspaper reporter Annie Gennaro, Sansi sets out for a luxurious Goan resort, where he and Annie will pretend to enjoy a much needed rest. But relaxing is the last thing they will do, as they back their way into a tangled jungle of Western dropouts, drugs, money, and murder that has overgrown the last refuge of pleasure in India.