It is not until he is on board the steamer halfway to their remote destination up river in Guyana, that Milton Woodsley realises that there is more to Henry Nevinson's invitation to spend time with his family in their jungle cottage. He had thought he was invited to do some paintings for Nevinson. But when the Nevinsons mention a flute player that no one else can hear, Woodsley begins to glean that there is more to their stay.
 
Told in Woodsley s skeptical, self-mocking and good-humored voice, Mittelholzer creates a brilliantly atmospheric setting for his characters and their terrified discovery that this is not a place where they can be at home."