In the Central American republic of Esmeralda, Tommy Hambledon finds himself trapped between hot Latin temperaments and cold 'hostile powers,' waiting for his American opposite number to show up -- waiting, and waiting. . . But to keep things interesting there is a sherry-swilling parrot, a lethal local lottery, and the hostile powers to be stymied, with or without the missing American, and all in the middle of a wild, ravine-filled terrain.