People are turning up dead for no apparent reason on the East Timor side of the border with Indonesia. Authorities believe a supply of toxic liquor smuggled into the country from West Timor is the reason. But traditional villagers fear a more sinister cause: a spirit that's taken possession of a living person in order to extract revenge for a past incident that occurred in defense of a sacred site. A suspicion of graft complicates matters and, if proved, could be tied to either explanation for the deaths. FBI agent Sara Carter, on assignment for INTERPOL in the border region of Balibo, is drawn into a tangled web where a small-time crook, a swindler, and people steeped in superstition combine to make a volatile cocktail of ambition and fear as deadly as the illicit liquor. The investigation will cost her friend Timorese police investigator Vincintino Cordero dearly, cause a re-evaluation of her own feelings about loss and love, and put Carter's own life in danger.