Two years after witnessing a devastating suicide that left him splattered with blood, Owen Keane, failed seminarian turned metaphysical detective, travels to Kenya to help Philip Swickard, an old classmate. But Keane has an ulterior motive. He hopes to step off the map, to disappear in a place where no one will think to look for him.

Keane finds himself in a remote valley roiled by a series of power struggles. Swickard, the local priest, is being undermined by an apostle of an even more ancient faith. The leadership of the local tribe is being challenged by a charismatic stranger who claims to be the reincarnation of the tribe's legendary chief. And everyone in the valley is endangered by a group of mysterious land raiders intent on driving small farmers from their holdings.

To save his friend and solve the mystery of his own future, Keane recommits himself to his life and then risks that life in the climax of this reimagining of the Edgar-nominated Owen Keane series.