The book is a character study of a friend Martin made on a previous trip to Barbados. On the last evening before returing home, Martin heads out for a drive and pulls in at the fish market in Half Moon Fort, where John is in the process of repainting his boat. John says he is the shark killer. In September of the same year Martin returns to spend 11 days with John, finding out who this person is who he was so intrigued by, with no presumed expectations about the outcome of the project, learning how to fish, drinking white rum and water, and documenting this experience, while spending time with John. Meanwhile the most strongest Hurricane ever recorded flies past 200 miles offshore to the north of the island.

It would be difficult to avoid John in Half Moon Fort. He seems omnipresent, wherever you go you can hear his deep, loud and jovial voice. It doesn't take long until Martin is submerged in the fabric and functioning of this small fishing village, and finds himself driving elderly ladies up the hill, and to church come Sunday.