Deputy Chief Constable sam Dillon - disillusioned by the politics of policing and drawing towards the end of his career - is appointed Commissioner of Police of the small Caribeean island of Avariss. When he and his wife, Annie, leave England and arrive on the island they soon experience some of the problems and peculiarities of working in a different environment and having to deal with - as he sees it - strange behaviours, attitudes and customs. Meanwhile a dark character in the shadows is stalking his victims.
Whilst Dillon is coping with his new job a series of violent rapes takes place but, despite all the police enquiries, the investigation proves fruitless and the officers are baffled. Dillon and his detectives grow more concerned and frustrated.
Even though the island suffers other dramatic events - a hurricane and a major fraud, leading to the collapse of one of the island's banks - the rapist continues to stalk and claim his victims.
When a suspect is arrested it seems that the case is solved, but when the mysterious rapist strikes again the hunt has to begin anew and the island's women become more fearful.
On a night in November the rapist strikes yet again and, this time, the police are close enough to surprise and pursue him. After a dramatic chase over land and sea he is arrested and his identity surprisingly revealed.