The moment Eva agreed to return to the island to report on its ferocious civil war, she knew she would have to meet ghosts from her past: the fate of her fey mother, Vivienne; her distant father Armand, who deserted her when she was a child; the once dashing Caspar, dying slowly in his great decaying house; and Navahiru, Eva's sometime lover. But just as Eva seems set to finally understand her neglected childhood, Carl, an American journalist who has lost his way, enters her life. With the bloodshed on the island escalating into genocide, Eva and Carl begin an intense love affair that gives them comfort, but also threatens to consume them. Eva's precarious situation is tipped into chaos when Navahiru is abducted by the security forces and Carl's friend the Captain seems to be implicated. "Serpent in Paradise" is a story of sexual obsession at a time of mounting violence and chaos. It is an unforgettable journey.