When the beautiful and willful Terry Parks goes missing in Thailand her old friend Ted Oldfield has serious doubts about the reasons for her disappearance. Is she in trouble? Or has she simply fallen prey to her past crimes and addictions? Ted, an old Asia hand, must battle his own demons in his quest to find Terry. To find her he heads straight into the heart of the Golden Triangle, where warlords and bent politicians vie for supremacy over the barbaric trade in heroin and human beings. What Ted and Terry encounter upcountry propels the two lovers into a storm of war, espionage and intrigue that spans two continents. And, ultimately, their journey puts them on a collison course with the nightmarish secret at the heart of Terry's dreadful past.