Pete smokes cigars with Saint Death in Mexico, ventures deep into a Bolivian mine to meet a terrifying god of the underworld, and takes a mind-expanding natural hallucinogen with a New Age community in the forests of Brazil. He also discovers how the centuries-old dominance of the Catholic Church is being challenged by a huge explosion of new religions and the re-emergence of dormant practices from the past. But his search to understand the diverse spiritualities of the New World proves to be a testing experience. Pete encounters the radical methods of an influential Pentecostal preacher in one of Rio de Janeiro's most notorious prisons, and has to hold his nerve when the minister tries to exorcise Pete's addiction to nicotine. In Brasilia he witnesses the space-age pageantry of a UFO-worshipping community, where a mediumistic reading gets out of control and Pete has to deal with a dark and frightening presence from the spirit world.