'You've lost someone?' 'My baby sister. You must locate her. I need to know she's safe and sound. This is my dying wish. You have three weeks to get it done.' Frankie Elkin is about to undertake the strangest mission of her career. She has been asked by serial killer Keahi Pierson, who has killed and dismembered 18 men and now serves out the very limited time she has left on Death Row, to find her long lost sister Lani. Keahi had always assumed her sister to be dead, but she's just received a letter preporting to be from her.

It's Keahi's dying wish to know that her sister is well and happy. Only trouble is that she faces the death penalty in three weeks time. The clock is ticking . Frankie quickly establishes that if Lani really is still alive, she will be living on a small atoll in the middle of the ocean off the coast of Hawaii. The island is owned by a millionaire business man and Frankie applies for a job working in the hotel he is developing. The island may be paradisal in appearance, but Frankie soon discovers that both the coast and the interior are patrolled by giant crabs and enormous spiders - and that is just the wildlife. With no idea who among her co-workers are friends and who are foe, and with no appearance yet of Lani, Frankie knows that her own life is in terrifying danger .