Not long after this first grisly find, the body of local greens activist Rachel Macarthur is discovered minus head and hands. Out of their depth, the local police call on Melbourne criminal profiler, Detective Rita Van Hassel, to help track down the killer.

What Rita finds on arriving in Whitley are not the tranquil tropical waters and magical rainforest of the tourist ads, but a hotbed of malignant passion where nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted. And the stakes are raised when Rita comes to the attention of the nearby US defence base and encounters a brutal enemy from her past.

as the murders continue, Rita's investigation is subverted by those at the highest levels, and she must play a dangerous game in her race to stop the killer and expose a deadly secret.