Tibetan Buddhist monks from a monastery in Bhutan, led by Lama Norbu, are searching for a child who is the tulku of a great Buddhist teacher, Lama Dorje. Lama Norbu and his fellow monks believe they have found a candidate for the child in whom Lama Dorje is rebirth (Buddhism): an American boy named Jesse Konrad, the young son of an architect and a teacher who live in Seattle. The monks come to Seattle in order to meet the boy.