Retired cop James Lasombra is asked by a friend to investigate the disappearance of her daughter, who seemingly packed in the night and left an ominous message on the bathroom mirror - "The Empty Man Made Me Do It." As he investigates this mysterious figure further, James begins to see and hear strange things, and is forced to come to terms with his past and what it means for his future.
A young government official, named Dondup, who is smitten with America (he even has a denim gho) dreams of escaping there while stuck in a beautiful but isolated village. He hopes to connect in the U.S. with a visa out of the country. He misses the one bus out of town to Thimphu, however, and is forced to hitchhike and walk along the Lateral Road to the west, accompanied by an apple seller, a Buddhist monk with his ornate, dragon-headed dramyin, a drunk, a widowed rice paper maker, and his beautiful daughter, Sonam.
Peyangki is a dreamy and solitary eight-year-old monk living in Laya, a Bhutanese village perched high in the Himalayas. Soon the world will come to him: the village is about to be connected to electricity, and the first television will flicker on before Peyangki's eyes.
Four monks, a royal scholar, and their American guru are fighting to save Bhutan's sacred arts while learning the art of letting go.
In the remote Bhutan, an undercover detective investigates the case of a missing Buddhist nun and falls into a risky alliance with his only suspect, an alluring young woman known as the village "demoness".
