Alessandro Aikau, an anthropologist visiting Hawaii from Boston, has been given rare permission to spend a month on the abandoned and forbidden island of Kaho'olawe. Kem, whose family has been entrusted with the sacred upkeep of this battered piece of paradise, at first resents Alessandro's unusual assignment. As the two men come to know each other, Kem begins to realize that there is a deeper, mysterious meaning to the man's presence on the island. He begins to sense it is a ritual atonement. But for what? Kem's kahuna parents won't divulge the secret, and neither will Alessandro, even as the two men become deeply attracted to one another and Alessandro suffers several bad accidents, faces continual sabotage, along with a strange invasion of the island. Will Alessandro survive his twenty-eight-day ritual, and if so, can he find love with Kem in this abandoned paradise?