At a meeting of thirteen of Santa Fe's leading New Age healers, Quentin Bouvier, a magician and possibly a reincarnated Egyptian pharaoh, has been hanged from the rafters. He outbid Leonard Quarry for astrologer Eliza Remington's antique tarot card and now he's dead and the tarot card is missing. The police quickly arrest Giacamo Bernardi, a tarot reader, and charge him with the murder and theft. Bernardi's court-appointed attorney hires private investigator Joshua Croft to prove Bernardi's innocence. Suspects from the meeting and the community abound, including astrologers and psychics, a young hermit immersed in ""Spiritual Alchemy,"" an ageing movie star who acts as a medium for an entity from Alpha Centauri, a Native American shaman who gets accountants in touch with their warrior within, and a mysterious Asian woman whose equally mysterious brother displays a near-lethal familiarity with martial arts.
