While detective Jack Liffey is convalescing from a collapsed lung from his last case, he is called to his hometown of San Pedro, shipyard to Los Angeles, where an inexplicable string of mysterious accidents have befallen local residents; a child turns up missing, a fishing boat sinks, a life's work is destroyed—and Japanese playing cards with cryptic notes are left at the scenes. At the same time, Jack begins to read snatches from the diary of Joe Ozaki, an enraged Japanese American ex-Green Beret who has vowed to avenge U.S. misdeeds against his father and other Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Eventfully Jack crosses paths with Joe Ozaki, when the Green Beret targets the detective's own father. The showdown between Jack and Ozaki comes to a head on a sealed-off Terminal Island, where escape is difficult and the final outcome anyone's guess.