The Strong family are wealthy, arrogant, decadent, and ruthless, with a string of sugar plantations in Barbados, a stately home near Bristol, and ambitions to control the refining of sugar in that city. But in a single night, the actions of one generation alter the family's legacy for ever. The three Strong brothers are overseeing their inheritance in the West Indies. In this balmy, tropical setting, an ugly situation is fuelled by Barbados rum, a murder is committed, and a child conceived. And the repercussions of this fatal night have a violent domino effect which reaches down through generations.