When 'Smiley' Riley Jackson, the handsome water-taxi driver, turns up at sea with his face chewed away by the fishes and a bullet wound in his chest, the finger of suspicion quickly points to the Cunninghams, wealthy Americans visiting the Eastern Caribbean island of St Cecilia. Not only has Hazel Cunningham, a regular djanmet, been spending a lot of time with the deceased behind her husband's back, she has also caught the attention of the close-knit community in LaPointe Sable by threatening to 'shoot herself a nigger', presumably with her husband's unlicensed pistol. Awa! A quest to bring the Americans to trial unfolds in paradise: but where, on an economically stagnant island cursed with incompetent, self-regarding officials and divided along racial and class-based lines, are truth and justice to be found?