Nothing is as it seems among passengers on the New Zealand Star. Colonel Newton's impotency resides in another when portraying to enigmatic widow, Nancyng Jenkins, his role as emissary to a dying woman, while she masks a torrid life of unspeakable horror and devious subterfuge. Into this milieu steps young heiress, Henrietta, whose deadly secrets end in tragedy.

Fate intervenes when High Commissioner Sir Gerald Templer recalls Newton to the cauldron of post-war Malaya, the quarry being its most-wanted communist terrorist, The Huntsman. With the past casting long shadows that can no longer be hidden, does Mrs Jenkins hold the key to Newton's redemption and the completion of his mission or will history repeat itself?