On a small Caribbean island, Will Mattison controls everything, even the death and interment of his son-in-law, Charles Collier. Ava Collier, Charles's mom, arrives on the island for the funeral and soon understands that she must stay to uncover the truth about her son's death and reclaim his ashes from Mattison's three-hundred-year-old sugar mill. Allies emerge to aid Ava in her quest"a Rasta boardwalk bum, an aboriginal mystic in the rainforest, a crusading radio-station owner, and Anole, a dark young man named for a climbing lizard. What Ava learns from these islanders and others will change her forever, and the sugar mill becomes her powerful symbol of endurance.