Geoffrey Bailey is a man in search of a new job - and a new life. Then Strode & Company, City shipowners, make him a curious offer: find Peter Strode, the family black sheep, and make sure he returns to the fold. Bailey's acceptance of this assignment plunges him into a world where the smiling face of the Maldive Islands masks unseen terrors. But the lethal dangers of the coral reefs and the remote islands are pale in comparison with the civilized jungle of high financial warfare. And the directors of Strode & Company have too much to lose, and too few scruples, to care about one man’s life - or his death.