An ancient statue of the Hindu goddess Kali is purchased by the university where MacLeod teaches and is put on display. Its creator, Immortal Kamir, who has been searching for it for centuries, arrives determined to take it back to its' home in India. Deva Ennis, the half-Indian department chairman who found the piece for the university, is equally determined to keep it. MacLeod, who has known Kamir since the Raj period, when India was controlled by the British Empire, knows Kamir is the last of the Thugee, a cult who worshipped Kali by ritually strangling her enemies.