"To tourists Hawaii is an air-conditioned tanning booth with shopping, booze, bikinis, and lots of smiling low-paid help. The real Hawaii is something else..." When a beautiful journalist drowns mysteriously off Waikiki, former Special Forces veteran Pono Hawkins, now a well-known Hawaii surfer and international surfing journalist, quickly gets embroiled in trying to solve her death. What he learns soon targets him for murder or life in prison...