In the Marshall Islands, American engineers and programmers are making and testing missiles while the indigenous Marshallese sweep their streets and clean their houses. It's 2004, the Iraq war is heating up and 9/11 is fresh in everyone's minds. Following four interconnected story lines - a burned-out cultural liaison, a crippled programmer, a young widow and a Marshallese teenager - Missile Paradise is a satirical novel about the clash of cultures between the Americans trying to realise their American Dream, and the Marshallese who are bedazzled and angered by it.