The Path of the Tapir follows an investigation into the deaths of two young American women and the subsequent manhunt for an expat, seen by some as an eco-radical, who befriended them.

Philip Millege, in the employ of a multi-national palm oil company, shows up on Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast to investigate the deaths of the free-spirited tourists, Chloe Summers and Peyton Paddington-who perished in a fire on the company's property-and to locate the missing male expat, Ellis Hayden, who was with them on the night of the incident.

Millege enlists the aid of several locals: Gustavo Segura, a bartender and kayaking guide, Victor Leiba, a solitary Boruca Indian, and Liz Zuniga, a reclusive house tender in the riverside village of Sierpe, where the fire occurred.

Complicating the search, another man, unknown and unregulated, enters the picture and joins the hunt, raising the stakes for both local and foreign characters in a lush and dangerous setting as the novel explores the price of environmental despoliation and the communion of grief and blame and its deadly consequences.