Sunset looked much the same to Paddy Carstairs when he came home after six years in the Marines. But it wasn't the same, for his parents were dead, drowned in their home. When Paddy's friend Ogden Kuronski blew up the dam which had caused the flood, more sinister matters came to light. Why had Carstairs' parents died in the cellar, their escape prevented by a bar across the trap door?