Nineteen thirty-nine Hawaii: two Hollywood actresses, the artillery brigade's handsomest officer and finest polo player, the polo player's beautiful wife, a Japanese carrier pilot who is sketching the aerial approach to Pearl Harbor, and the captain of the sketcher's sampan unite in a mlange of passionate encounters that find coherence in the symbology of a Tahitian black pearl. Sidelights are the gold mesh necklace concealed in the God Kane's chest and the emerald cut diamond lost in the sand of the officer's beach at Waialua.

Sextus Duncan is recruited by Mideast interests to abduct his wealthy half-brother, Gus Bishop. Intermingled with this tale of arrogant greed are Bishop's women, the blacks of St. Kitts and the Bahamas, as well as gentle dolphins and dangerous mako sharks.