Seven sites anchor this survey of Buddhism's spread across Asia and beyond, with historian Bettany Hughes as guide. She starts at Bodh Gaya in India, where Siddhartha Gautama is said to have reached enlightenment under a bodhi tree, then moves to the Boudhanath Stupa in Nepal, the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka, and Wat Pho in Bangkok, home of the reclining Buddha. Angkor Wat in Cambodia, built as a Hindu temple before Buddhist monks reclaimed it, and the seated Tian Tan Buddha above Hong Kong round out the Asian leg. The final stop is unexpected: Hsi Lai Temple in Los Angeles, evidence that these traditions have taken root far from their origins. At each location Hughes talks with monks and worshippers about the architecture, ritual, and history specific to that place rather than treating Buddhism as one uniform belief system. The film moves site to site as a structure, letting each location's distinct history carry the story of how the religion changed as it traveled.