When a group of strangers purchase land on Tortola and Norman Island to set up a commune, the locals simply write them off as an odd sort—until one of their bloated bodies washes up on the shore of a nearby resort island.

As luck would have it, Jesse McDermitt is visiting a friend on Norman Island after tracking a terrorist submarine from the Windward Islands. The sub was destroyed by locals on the Dutch island of Saba, so Jesse had nothing much else to do. What he wasn't looking for, was a murderous cult at the center of a drug manufacturing and distribution ring.

If a person didn't succumb to the rules of this cult, they might end up riding the chum sluice. If they do, they might meet Jesse.