Bangkok expatriate Gary Griswold, a millionaire American of Albany old money, goes missing and his ex-wife wants to know what's happened to him
and his 38 million dollars. It seems religious dilettante Griswold and his money have disappeared deep into Thailand, where corruption has its own etiquette. Soon, Albany's only gay private detective, Don Strachey, hired to fly to Thailand to locate Griswold, is out of his element, and his lover Timmy is way out of his comfort zone, as they comb the Land of Crooked Smiles for a man with a foolhardy plan to buy 38 million dollars worth of good karma.
In vivid, witty and fast-paced prose, Stevenson's characters expose a queer side of Bangkok alive with bathhouses, katoeys, muscle-boy gunsels and a mysterious Thai man named Mango.