It is an account of his two-month search for the snow leopard with naturalist George Schaller in the Dolpo region on the Tibetan Plateau in the Himalaya.

Another aim was to spot the snow leopard, a predator on the bharal and a creature that was seldom seen (it had been glimpsed only twice by Westerners in the previous twenty five years).

The nature writing aspect brings echoes of the work of Alexander von Humboldt or Charles Darwin.

"[3] Matthiessen frequently digresses to remember his wife Deborah Love who had died of cancer prior to the adventure.

The memories of Deborah operate with a number of other recursive stylistic traits that play against the linear, outward progress of the journey logged through maps and dates.