Michael Stuart takes on his first homicide case. The local police Chief in Zamboanga, The Philippines, requests his help in solving the murder of a powerful plantation owner's son. He quickly finds himself in a tangle with his Peace Corps Supervisor, the expatriate community and the killer. Michael has dropped out of college to join President Kennedy's new Peace Corps. He has had only a few courses in Deviant Behavior and Criminal Justice. He is assigned to the Peace Corps on the island of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines. Logging, mining and plantations dominate the Post-War economy, and are still in the hands of powerful foreigners and members of the Filipino elite. The Moros, the name Filipinos apply to Moslem members of their country, are just beginning to organize to protect their traditional lands in the big southern island. Michael is learning about murder in the school of hard knocks.