When Police Constable Johnson "Sonny" Stone stumbles upon a murdered man's corpse in the filthy Dry River on the edge of Port of Spain, Trinidad, he unwittingly opens a case involving calypso, conspiracy and corruption.
It is 1932. African chattel slavery and Indian indentureship are over, but neither has been left behind. British Colonial Port of Spain is a roiling pot of disparate races, classes and agendas: the rich take what they want, the gangsters take what they need, and the poor take whatever's left.
Depressed by his wife's leaving him, and suspended from the Constabulary for insubordination, Sonny Stone is drawn into an investigation that searches every corner of the city. His goal: Solve the case no matter where it ends, or who it destroys.