Following her heroic conduct during a terrorist attack, warrant officer Angélique Blakaman obtains a posting to Maripasoula in Guyana, where she grew up. She has to get used to a riverside town that has changed due to its proximity to Suriname and its Chinese businesses and its brothels. And beyond these last outposts of urban life, there is the endless forest and the legendary Amerindian lands of Tumac-Humac where traditional beliefs are gradually vanishing as the evangelists infiltrate themselves everywhere.

This is where Tapwili Manoko lives, the only man who can inject some warmth into her heart. And so when bad news arrives from her village of Wakamïnn, Angélique absolutely insists on travelling there and undertaking a challenging investigation in what is sometimes called the forbidden zone. Through his heroine, Colin Niel takes us into the secret, hidden Guyana.