In evocative island settings, a cast of international characters mix an intriguing cocktail of murders, tropical passion and island humour. The year is 1990 and a nuclear bomb's been spirited from Moruroa, France's military atoll southeast of Tahiti, and smuggled to the Fiji Islands. Islamic extremists are trans-shipping the bomb through the islands to a mystery consignee. French special forces and the Fiji military try to track down the bomb and its shadowy high-jackers. The chase takes them through the brothels and backwaters of Papeete and Suva, to down-at-heel Taveuni copra estates, and then out to remote atolls in northern Fiji. Taveuni ornithologist, Jack Costello and Madeleine Bouvier, a coral reef conservationist, struggle with developers intent on over-expoliting the islands. Their tentative love affair is thrown into confusion by Madeleine's past activities in France. When they and their Fijian friends become embroiled in the bomb-chase, Jack and Madeleine must take matters into their own hands.