Burma is known as "The Golden Land." And for Brin Harper, Burma means golden memories from a youth spent in an exotic country with his mother, an accomplished diplomat. But today Brin Harper is an NYPD homicide detective haunted by his mother's suicide, and his grief is slowly eroding his relationship with his journalist boyfriend, Richard. Now a set of vicious murders is about to dredge up secrets and bitter regrets from thousands of miles away and many years ago. The trail leads to a strange monk who doesn't behave at all like a holy man. Brin is faced with a range of suspects, including the American widower of dissident Marlar Swe, to his on-again, off-again lover, Aung, a quiet professor who has survived time in Burma's infamous Insein Prison. As the killer claims more victims, each murdered in a fashion inspired by Burmese culture, Brin must confront his own past and play a duel of wits with the monk, trying to decipher what his role is in the case. And there are more disturbing personal revelations waiting for him than just exposing a psychotic murderer...