The year is 1811, and in Washington, D.C., a good man's heart is broken over the death of his beloved wife. But Stockton Livingstone's sense of national duty remains strong, and when President Grover Cleveland calls him to serve as ambassador to Samoa, he accepts. Grief makes room for new challenges in a tropical paradise, with six children to raise and weighty diplomatic concerns to address. The Germans' puppet government controls the island, U.S. and British interests are at stake, and as international tensions escalate, the peaceful Samoans are forgotten--and they are preparing to respond with a violence no one expects. No one, that is, except one woman.