The reticulated python is thought to be the longest snake in the world. After the capture of a 28-foot member of the species in the swamps of South East Asia in 1912, President Roosevelt established a $1000 reward for the capture of a 30-foot python. Eighty-seven years later the award remains unclaimed (having risen in increments to $50,000) and Robert Twigger, after being apprenticed to a bunch of former headhunters turned expert snake catchers, heads into the remote jungles of Indonesia armed with only a tin of High Toast Snuff (deadly if sniffed by a snake) in search of his prey. Along the way, he investigates the legendary beautiful women of Sulawesi, treads in Nabakov's footsteps through the remote area of Bone, looks for giant snakes beneath the sewers of Kuala Lumpur, and spends time with a variety of snake catchers and cults. After being caught up in anti-Chinese riots, surviving on greasy civet cat in the jungle, Twigger finally comes face to face with the big one. But the final capture is not what he quite had in mind.