Two bodies are discovered near Gubu, one burning at the base of a tree struck by lightning and, on the banks of Zimbabwe's Zambezi, a second killing which threatens to tear Detective Sibanda's life apart. The victims are not connected, but despite the scant clues, Sibanda's intuition tells him the murders are linked. As Sibanda and Sergeant Ncube make their sophomore investigation (after Sibanda and the Rainbird), they find a diary full of coded names as well as links to an ivory smuggling gang, and in their pursuit of the killer, they not only have to cope with their temperamental Land rover and their chief inspector's lack of cooperation, but a rough and remote landscape that is dangerous even in the best of times.