Charles Prentice, a popular author of travel books, is forced to postpone his trip to yet another exotic country and urgently fly to the Spanish Mediterranean to rescue his brother, who runs a sports club in the resort town of Estrella de Mar, from prison. But upon arrival it turns out that Frank Prentice is accused not of giving a bribe, not of evading taxes, but of the brutal murder of five people; and the strangest thing is that he does not deny his guilt. Burning with the desire to get to the bottom of the truth, Charles plunges into a labyrinth of lies and omissions, petty crime and vacation vices, schizophrenia and conspiracy theories...