[1] The story deals with an American intellectual who travels to Calcutta, India, where he becomes embroiled in mysterious and horrific events at the centre of which lies a cult of Kapalikas that worships Kali.

[2] Robert Luczak is sent by the American literary magazine Other Voices, where he works as an editor, to Calcutta to locate poetry alleged to have been recently authored by a legendary poet, M. Das.

The man tells how he and a friend tried to join a religious secret society dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction.

Becoming concerned at the eerie and sometimes frightening events that he has experienced, Robert attempts to send his wife and child home, but they are unable to get a flight.

He awakens to find himself in a temple of Kali, where the statue of the goddess seems to come to life and attack him (though it is left deliberately ambiguous as to whether this actually happens, or is instead a hallucination).

Robert still wrestles with the desire for revenge, and after training himself in the use of firearms he returns to Calcutta with a smuggled handgun, intending to track down and kill everyone he considers responsible.

Whispers can still be heard, though, of the "Song of Kali", the condition of humanity dominated by hatred and violence, perfectly embodied, in the mind of the narrator, by the squalor and chaos of Calcutta.