The Amazon river basin contains the world's largest remaining rain forest as well as its longest river. Countless Indian tribes live there, as well as vast numbers of plant species, many of them still unknown to science. This book tells the story of three scientists who explored the region: the ethnobotanist Richard Edward Shultes, and two of his students, Tim Plowman and Wade Davis. Davis's account is one of danger, and of extraordinary discoveries as Shultes sought to understand the psychoactive plants of the rain forest. It is also a celebration of the Indian way of life, and a lament for the wanton destruction of landscape, culture and spirit throughout the Americas.