When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is found dead—the day after buying India's most expensive painting—the authorities are keen to label it a suicide. But in this fourth case (after The Strange Disappearance of a Bollywood Star), Inspector Chopra is called in, and discovers a hotel full of people with a reason to want Burbank dead. Accompanied by his sidekick, baby elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his way through the palatial building, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer, and into the heart of darkness.