This dramatic account, written in an almost journalistic style, tells the story of an 1898 dig, conducted in Birdpore, India, near the Nepalese border, by William Claxton Peppe. Peppe claimed to have unearthed a reliquary containing the ashes of the Buddha, the only such relics in existence. At the same time, and only 15 miles away however, the archaeologist and previously outed fraudster Dr. Fuhrer was claiming that he had discovered the Buddha's birthplace. Allen shows how the obvious dubiousness of Fuhrer's claims also cast doubt on Peppe's work, and in the final chapter tries to untangle truth from fiction using the latest radio carbon dating evidence.