Landlords are never the most popular people, and there is little grief when the greedy, ruthless Mahendralal Bakhle is blown up in his boat on beautiful Periyar Lake.  Suspicion falls on the boat-boy who died with him but Dominic Felse, a member of a party of young tourists who were accidentally involved with the tragedy, is not convinced of the boy’s guilt. And when they move on, it seems the terror is still pursuing them. Violence and death erupt in the home of a very different landowner, where Dominic and his friends are guests, and follow them relentlessly south to the very tip of India where Dominic and the Swam Premanathanand, a man of peace, unravel a deadly Indian rope trick of hatred and murder.