Antoinette Cosways family live in Jamaica, an island as gorgeous as Eden. However, colonial tensions are becoming unbearable as the islanders repeatedly terrorise the white cockroaches in the Cosway household. Antoinettes marriage to a visiting Englishman seems to offer an escape from this claustrophobic society, but while on honeymoon her husband receives a mysterious letter. When the rumours start to tangle with half-heard conversations the couple suddenly find themselves travelling towards an uncertain and terrible future.