After completing a month of work in Sydney, Australia, Anne Lamington heads north to Cairns and beyond for a brief Queensland vacation before her return to the States. A middle-aged American tourist entertained by the colorful words and ways of the Land of Oz, Anne looks forward to relaxing at the remote lodge overlooking the Great Barrier Reef. But just as she arrives, she witnesses a woman's fatal accident. Or was it an accident? Anne watches kangaroos, explores a crocodile-studded river, and snorkels the Reef but remains in the disturbing grip of unexplained events in the mysterious death. The local police shrug off the death as a perilous accident, but Anne knows there is evil at work here. With haunting visions of the tortured death, she sets out to discover the facts to quell her nightmarish memories. But she's in a foreign and decidedly strange world where her honest methods are not always appreciated by the locals at the lodge and nearby town. Only rookie Constable Suzanne Munroe, who wants to break away from a police desk with frustratingly menial tasks, takes Anne's sleuthing seriously. Between Anne's spunky, determined curiosity and the Constable's earnest desperation to prove her worth, the two women team up and quickly begin uncovering secrets. As they go deeper Down Under, however, the tropical, balmy atmosphere proves to be a whirlpool of malicious deeds and cruel acts, and a violent tempest ensues