In this memoir/travelogue, an American poet travels to Mongolia with his friend Tsung Tsai, the last Ch`an Buddhist master, in order to find the bones of Tsung Tsai`s teacher. Along the way, Crane learns much of Ch`an Buddhism and of Tsung Tsai`s past, including his escape from the Red Guards in the late `50s--and both experience modern-day China and Hong Kong.