In this poignant final novel in the Sati Trilogy, the past catches up with the monk Sati. Now forty-five, the esteemed abbot of the Buddhist monastery Ghosita's Park is shocked to discover he has an adult daughter and she hates him. He reels under Kasi's fury at his having abandoned her and her mother when he was a young man. Simultaneously, he endures attacks from Pindola, a fellow monk who covets his role as abbot. Sacred verses, which Sati's father had passed to him as a youth, come back into his possession and challenge his monastic commitment. Only the counsel of the Buddha can resolve his spiritual crisis. His daughter's antipathy, however, must take its own course. Kasi grows and makes a startling decision, while Pindola, who threatens deadly action to achieve his aims, forces Sati to make his own hard choice. Sati's decision shapes, in a surprising way, the manner in which he is portrayed in Buddhist scripture and, thus, how he has been known in Buddhist circles ever since.