Teddi Lakshmi Patel Shepherd, a young architect from Los Angeles, has been offered a working vacation in Anuapua in the South Pacific. Arriving in high spirits and ready for anything, she is tempted by the romantic visions offered by a courtly elder to book passage on the inter-island tramp steamer he recommends. We meet her just as she strides up the gangplank of the Annubis, and into a web of intrigue lurking behind the facade of this vacation paradise; a web that pits desperate hopes against grasping power. Before long, she finds herself cast in a complex role-part Sherlock Holmes, part Mata Hari, part Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a role that takes her on a labyrinthine journey to the very heart of the crisis looming in the life of this small island nation. Brimming with danger and excitement, it also brings her face to face with deep currents of her own life."