A gifted young scholar clings desperately to part-time employment at a Caribbean university. Then, a post opens up on an unknown offshore campus in Portmore, Jamaica. Into this harsh yet delicate terrain ventures Candace Clarke, bent on taking root in an academic world. As her relationship with her dysfunctional father grows more fraught, she draws comfort from her longstanding friend, Randall (a medievalist and would-be novelist), and she confides...