Inspector Roderick Alleyn—an aristocrat, an intellectual, and Scotland Yard’s best detective—has come to enjoy a quiet vacation at a secluded resort in New Zealand, incognito. There, you can be treated with mud baths, restore peace of mind, and chat with pleasant people—at least that’s the official version of why Alleyn is in New Zealand.
However, the peaceful rest of the foreign guest doesn’t work out. The resort is filled with a tense, uneasy atmosphere, and strange incidents follow one after another. One of the resort’s inhabitants mysteriously disappears, and the next day his body is found in a steaming volcanic lake. What is it: an accident, a murder, or a Maori curse that hangs over the resort? But Inspector Alleyn asks the question differently: who will be the next victim?