Beyond the Summit is unique in being the first work to dramatize the lives of the Sherpa tribe of Mount Everest in fiction. Set in the Everest region in 1968 four years after Sir Edmund Hillary built a landing strip at Lukla, the story shows the impact of tourism on a culture still living in the Middle Ages. Young Dorje wants what the foreigners bring while his father resents their intrusion in the realm of the gods. Details of Sherpa culture and Buddhist religion are interwoven in a Himalayan romance and high adventure. The story has something for everyone: a love affair between an American journalist and Sherpa guide, an expedition from the porter’s point of view, Tibetan refugees, conflict between generations as the modern world challenges centuries of tradition.