Following on from Iris Button's novel The Fire Ruby, Zeek has found the long-lost precious heirloom and is now on board the Sun Stream, bound for Guinea, West Africa. He intends to carry out the wishes of the beautiful Countess Jeanette - a woman he owes his life to - and return the stolen gem to its rightful owner, Count Robert Daneau. But Zeek discovers that tragedy has struck Robert's ancestral home on the Oleander cotton plantation. The ancient legend suggests that the house of Daneau will fall without the precious talisman, the Fire Ruby. So does this priceless jewel have magical powers after all?