In 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine attempted to climb Mount Everest and were never seen again. Seventy years later, Makoto Fukamachi, a young Japanese reporter, encounters a mysterious mountain climber named Habu Joji, in whose hands Fukamachi thinks he sees Mallory's camera, which might reveal if Mallory and his companion really were the first to climb Everest.
The Summit of the Gods tells Fukamachi's obsessive quest for the truth about the first expedition to Mount Everest.