Terence Powell, fortyish professor from California, spends part of each year on Runaia, a beautiful Pacific island, where he has a house on the beach. He is involved in conflicting love affairs, one with Jan from California and one with a beautiful Runaian girl. Terence is agonizing about this when a woman is found brutally murdered with '69' in blood on her forehead, and the police suspect Terence. Then Jan arrives. Soon he's fighting with Jan and is obsessed with finding the murderer. His quest takes him to the local library, to Manea, an atoll seven hundred miles north, and leads to New Zealand as well.