Jack Cherry, a small-time journalist suffering from mental depression after the accidental death of his wife, determines to go through with the dream vacation she had been planning for them. But leaving the States and bumming around Rio de Janeiro and its night clubs only stimulate his self-destructive tendencies. His big idea to honor his wife's itinerary seems to have defeated him, until a series of bizarre local murders and the puzzle behind them give him a reason to stay sober. The story of a lifetime seems to have come looking for him. (The way in which the murders take place has never been seen in fiction before.) Working independently of the police, Cherry seeks to identify the murderer. Allied with a photographer from a lurid tabloid and a Brazilian coroner, he uncovers not only a story that began hundreds of years ago, but the truth about a serial killer from the rain forest who may or may not be entirely human.