Geddes fascination with 5th-century Buddhist monk Huishen, culminated in a modern retracing of his epic journey. In a rich and thought-provoking account, readers encounter Afghan refugees, Pakistani dissidents, Tibetan monks, Buddhist scholars, mysterious cairns in Haida Gwaii, and ghostly remains in Mexico. As the Silk Road morphs into superhighways, and ancient sculptures turn into military targets, Geddes glimpses, in the collision of past and present history, important clues for imagining a workable future.