1969 Bristol Bajan ex-cop & reluctant private detective Joseph JT' Tremaine Ellington is still trading in cash & favours lending a helping hand to those too scared to go to the police or anyone trying to stay one step ahead of them Life is tough for JT who is broke It is about to get a lot tougher when he receives a telegram informing him of a tragedy that has unfolded thousands of miles away Ellington's sister Bernice has been murdered Ellington wants to make the long journey back to his home on the island of Barbados to pay his final respects & to settle his late sister's affairs To do so he must accept a ticket from his shady cousin Vic on condition he travels to New York first where Vic is building himself a criminal empire in Harlem Vic appoints the beguiling Evagelina Laveau to mind his cousin along with his henchmen Clefus Horton & a hot-headed Bajun Pigfoot a man always quick with his knife JT soon discovers that Vic is the American end of an operation that stretches back to Barbados & that Vic's business partner is Conrad Monroe the man responsible for the death of JT's wife & daughter & as JT finds himself embroiled in the world of drugs bent law voodoo & the bitter legacy of slavery he must return to the island of his birth & face the demons of his past