Cyan is nicknamed "Night" because she is so dark. Bottom Rock is her village, just five miles from Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados. Her father is known as "Steel"; he is a fisherman who teaches his daughter to love the unspoiled beauty of their island. Her mother, a foreigner from neighboring St. Lucia, is scorned as an outsider by the villagers. The smart one in the family is her sister, on whom her mother's ambitions are focused, but it is feisty Cyan who is her father's favorite. And then her father kills a man in a fit of jealous rage and Cyan's tranquil life is changed forever.