Lt. Tepano Morel conducts a thrilling investigation in the Marquesas Islands of Polynesia, part paradise and part hell on earth.

A body is found atop a mountain in the Marquesas—that of a young woman named Paiotoka O’Connor. Police lieutenant Tepano Morel, stationed in Tahiti, is sent out to investigation. Ancestral arts and tradition, or poaching? An illegal trade in endangered species, or prostitution? What was the motive for this murder? Why was a well-respected young mother who passionately loved her island home killed? Dealing with ghosts from his own past, the lieutenant discovers the dark side of a country rotten with fallout from colonialism, unemployment, and domestic violence, where silence is golden and secrets jealously kept.