In the Anadarko Basin of West Texas, Raymond James Murphy found himself employed as a short order cook in a roadside diner. He was hired as a favor for a friend. It was well known that he could no longer work as a roustabout in the oil patch because of his drinking and fighting. Maybe it was his Irish genes.

As a lifelong Texan, barbecue sauce was Ray's main food group, he put it on everything. Working in the diner, Ray became more and more interested in spices, to the extent that his extensive spice rack became known in Odessa, and he was referred to as "the Spice Hound."

Ray's world changed forever when, if you can believe it, a French Cordon Bleu trained chef was delivered to town via a long-haul trucker who kicked her out of his cab while driving twenty miles per hour. Once recovered from her injuries, Giselle was recruited to the diner to replace the second shift cook who was pregnant.

It was West Texas crude meeting French sophistication, and the fireworks were spectacular. Ray and Giselle learned from each other, loved, and concocted great spices together. A dream was born; they would travel to the origin of the spices that changed the world. These spices generated the great camel trains across deserts, and sea routes from the time of Vasco da Gama taking Portuguese caravels around the Cape of Good Hope. It was romantic. It was a magnificent obsession. Ray and Giselle would voyage to the Spice Islands of Indonesia and walk among the nutmeg trees of the Molucca islands.

And this is where the story begins. It doesn't happen like you think it would. It becomes a grand adventure of epic proportions involving an unforgettable cast of characters. Enjoy the ride.