In 1860, a man and woman approach the coast of Africa aboard a swift clipper - in the command of an American who knows no law. Robyn Ballantyne and her brother Morris have waited years for this moment: to return to Africa, to search for their missionary father who had disappeared somewhere in the wilderness. Traveling north from Cape Town, they follow a map left by a madman - into an uncharted world of waterfalls and jungle, teeming wildlife, murderous disease, and the ghastly ruins of an astounding city. Uncovering their father`s trail, Robyn and her brother are in the midst of a slave trade that pours out of Africa like a bloody wound. Now, to survive what they have found, they must make their separate ways out - through pitched battles on land and on through the pride, passions and fury of their