Wylie Cypher, a corporate attorney, has a dying marriage, a midlife crisis, and is disillusioned with his work. Trying to regain fading youth, he plans a trekking vacation with his daughter, Mercy, across the White Mountains of Peru. It is 1980.When he arrives in Lima, a student mistakenly believes Wylie is an agent of the US government and gives him a travel guide concealing documents that show how the government is torturing and murdering dissidents. Wylie decides to deliver those documents to US authorities, where they will affect the outcome of the bloody civil war raging in Peru at the time. Peruvian government thugs and agents of the Shining Path communist guerrilla movement are quickly on Wylie's trail, botheager to kill Wylie and his entire trekking party. Wylie, his daughter, a local guide, and his friend, an archaeologist (who is more than he seems), and portersset out using various ruses to throw their pursuers off track.Wylie is tortured by local police and loses a toe. He escapes, but malignant forces follow. Can they cross the foreboding eighteen thousand foot high pass and make it to Cajamarca in time to take the only safe flight home and deliver the documents?The book features details about smuggling ancient artifacts (including a 600 year old child mummy), the glories of the Peruvian Andes, how the gap between rich and poor can lead to anarchy, and mysteries of the spirit to the mountains, Pachamama. Combat in the thin air of the Andes takes place, and hairbreadth escapes may or may not take place. Of course, like any good thriller, the CIA is involved.