In 1959, Buddhist monk Tsung Tsai fled Mongolia when Red Army troops destroyed his monastery. He miraculously survived a year-long trek through China to Hong Kong. When George Crane, a self-described 42-year-old "cerebral ne'er-do-well" with a love of books, women, and travel, and a distaste for long-term employment, meets Tsung Tsai, the monk is living a simple life in Woodstock, New York. The two of them become friends even though the American is awed by his neighbor's abilities as a Renaissance Man — he's a monk, poet, philosopher, house-builder, scientist, doctor, and Kung Fu expert.
They begin working on some translations of plum poems together. Tsun Tsai tells him: "Poetry must be like play. Like Zen." The 71-year-old Ch'an master then asks George to accompany him on a trip to China in order to find the bones of his master and to build a shrine. Crane feels honored to join Tsung Tsai on this quest. Their spiritual journey is filled with surprises.
The prose in this book follows the Ch'an master's advice to Crane about poetry: "Complicated makes mess. Just write very straight." Crane meets Tsung Tsai's older sister, receives some beads from an old lama who tells him his roots go very deep, and is awed by his friend's ability to blend Zen clarity with shamanistic mysticism. Bones of the Master ends with an arduous climb up a mountain and a gift that deepens the bond between the two men.