A crack of gunfire and Ace MacKinnon, a Narcotics/Vice detective with the Hawaii Police Department lies dead. A few hours later, his daughter, Kate MacKinnon, discovers that Chief Nishida (an old family friend) has declared the murder an "an accident." Kate's search for her father's killer takes us into the dark and exotic world of Hawaii politics and crime. In the end, when Kate has given up all hope of ever discovering who killed her father, she stumbles on a crucial bit of evidence-a starburst Christmas decoration-that casts a new and blinding light on her father's shocking past and startling murder.