Sequel to The Death of Valdez.Determined to divorce her husband who has been absent the past four years, Lady Claudia Saint-Hubes, a wealthy landowner from England who, having only a few months to live, needs to negotiate with Lord Oliver which of her ancestral properties he would accept in the divorce settlement, leaving the remainder for their three adult children, Lady Marguerite, a twenty seven year old, overweight artist, eighteen year old Lord Geoffrey, a talented violinist and the beautiful Lady Rosamund, eleven months his junior.In order for her husband to sign the relevant documents, she and her children board an ocean liner in 1909, bound for South America where, reportedly, he is researching tropical diseases in a remote region of the Amazon rainforest.Because Lord Oliver is not awaiting their arrival In Pernambuco, they try to track his whereabouts along tributaries of the Amazon River, which then takes them deeper into the rainforest where the family have to transfer to more suitable shallow draft vessels, eventually ending their search in dugout canoes.On reaching the research compound, they come under attack by headhunters and are abandoned by their fleeing canoeists.Once there, they are presented with the sight of rotting corpses from a deadly virus unintentionally unleashed by Lord Oliver. There he, his harem and four of his five pale-skinned children are dead and the fifth dies soon after in Lady Claudia's arms.Over the following weeks, they survive on the store of tinned goods and, by the time the Jesuit Priest, Harvey Fitzgerald and his god-like son Lorenzo, break their year-long missionary route at the compound, Lady Claudia and Lord Geoffrey are themselves infected with the virus, a suffocating, creeping paralysis with gradual blindness. When, during the delayed rainy season, a filthy steamer docks at the makeshift landing stage crewed by caiman hunters, Valdez and two others, they mortally wound Lady Claudia, gang rape Lady Rosamund and leave Lord Geoffrey for dead.