The owner of a sugar plantation, Roger Seymour, is discovered in his mill with a machete in his back. Detective Inspector Richard Poole and his team have countless suspects: ex-wife Nicole Seymour, nephew Alex Seymour, new girlfriend Kim Neville, each with cast-iron alibis. Broken glass from a torch, letters JOH scrawled in blood by the victim, a disappearing small girl and a 200-year-old mystery of disappearing slaves are the only clues.Meanwhile Poole struggles to muster that loving feeling for the local voodoo festival celebrating romance and friendship.
Tropes:
- All for Nothing: Poole informs the killers that Roger was terminally ill, and all they had to do if they wanted him dead and to inherit his estate was to wait a month or two. Instead, they are going to jail for murder, and the will he wrote leaving his estate to them is invalid.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Roger Seymour was murdered before he could inform a lunch gathering of his family and friends - including his killers - that he had only a month left to live. During The Summation, Poole rubs salt in the killers' wounds by telling them they are going to prison for the rest of their lives because they couldn't wait one lousy half-hour.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: Roger Seymour was stabbed in the back with a machete, and used his dying strength to write in his blood, the the first three letters of his killer's father's first name.
- Secret Underground Passage: Camille keeps seeing a small child appearing and disappearing and it seems like she's a ghost. Then Poole figures out there is a secret passage under the plantation that some people use. This is also how the murderer killed the plantation owner.
- Ship Tease: Camille mistakes Poole for the blind date her mother has set her up on until she is corrected and pointed in the right direction.
