The discovery of a centuries-old spice leads to a million-dollar murder.

In the days of Marco Polo, men risked their lives for spices. And in an age when black pepper was so valuable that it was sold one peppercorn at a time, there was no spice more valuable than the legendary Ko Feng. Known as the Celestial Spice, it supposedly vanished five centuries ago, and its name lives on only as culinary myth. But now a sack of it has turned up in New York City, and the leading experts of world cuisine will kill for a taste. When London's finest gourmet detective proclaims the mysterious spice authentic, this sack of weeds becomes the most valuable substance on earth, worth thousands of dollars per gram. But soon the spice vanishes, one of his colleagues is murdered, and the detective is forced to dive into New York's culinary underworld. His palate may be refined, but this gourmet knows how to fight dirty.