Sheryl grows up in the Caribbean isle of Dominica believing in a cultural myth that a big bad man called a "skerrit" kills children who do not go to school. But a truant Sheryl thinks that can never happen to her until the day she learns that the "skerrit" has come to get her, and the frightened nine-year old faces a fate that she thinks nobody can save her from. As Sheryl matures and encounters more powerful people determined to harm her, however, she fights back the best she can. One day, an unusually mighty friend whom she has been longing to see all of her life finally visits her land. But the excited twenty-year old discovers that her friend's landing is not what she had anticipated, and more than she had expected. Stories of stormy as well as delightful coconut encounters in this novel are buried deep within Sheryl, until one night, one late college night, when a palm fruit starts her talking.