The rain-soaked streets of Napua on Hawaii s island of Elima are a far cry from a battlefield but, for returned soldier Kimo Stanner, there s a sudden reminder of warfare when a figure rushes in front of his pickup and he feels the impact. Even before getting out to view the damage, he knows the pedestrian is dead, and there s nothing for it but to report to the police except that when the police arrive, the body has disappeared. When he turns to the firm of Smith, Chu and Yoshinobu to defend him on what is now simply a drunk-driving charge, Kimo s attorney is Laura Correa, newly hired by the firm. Kay Yoshinobu agrees to help the nervous attorney with her first case as a trial lawyer. With no missing persons reported, and no proof that there was actually a body at the scene, the case goes well, the judge is sympathetic, the defense witnesses are effective, and the prosecuting attorney isn t out for blood. And that s when things go wrong terribly wrong. A body turns up in a local gulch, is clearly the one Kimo reported, and the DUI is then raised to manslaughter. As the police look into the matter, they find more and more evidence to indicate even that charge may be changed to something more serious, and Kay s investigative abilities are put to a severe test. That Kimo s pickup clearly struck a pedestrian who was alive at the time seems irrefutable. And, by Kimo s own testimony, the man was dead following the accident. To prove otherwise seems both medically and legally impossible, but Laura and Kay soon find that there may be another explanation. And the search for it takes them off to interview a host of strange people.