Indy comes to a Shanghai nightclub to exchange the urn he found containing the ashes of Emperor Nurhaci for a huge Pheasant's Eye diamond, which he intends to donate to the museum. The insidious deception of gang leader Lao Che forces Indiana to flee. Together with singer Wiley from that same nightclub and eleven-year-old assistant Shorty, Indy finds himself on a plane whose crew has secretly abandoned him. There are no parachutes, and the friends jump out of the plane on... an inflatable boat. So they end up in the Himalayas, where they have to save children from an Indian village. According to its inhabitants, evil spirits took the children for themselves after the sacred Shankara stone was stolen. The search for treasure pits Indiana and his friends against the cult of death.