It started with a letter from Queensland and abruptly Duncan Ross, a placid clerk, is plucked from his humdrum life on the Sydney wharves and dispatched on a secret mission to the South Seas where he encounters brutal blackbirders, fierce cannibals and, unexpectedly, a resurgent Ku Klux Klan fixed on recreating the cotton plantations of the Old South in the far reaches of the Pacific. From the crystalline lagoons of the Coral Sea to the pearling grounds of the Torres Strait Duncan charts an erratic course betwixt duty and self-preservation. Kidnapped, castaway and desperate he finally pitches up on the raw coast of unknown New Guinea where he is plunged headlong into the midst of unspeakable savagery and danger. This is a rollicking saga of adventure and intrigue set against the colonial rivalry of the great powers in the South Pacific.