The Villa Sepulveda of this novel is a Spanish colonial manor located in a remote coconut plantation in the Philippines. When the patriarch of this family estate dies, his far-flung family returns to this ancestral home filled with centuries-old heirlooms.
The story if told from the point of view of Sophie, college girlfriend of Adrian Adrian Sepulveda, who has invited her to the funeral of his grandfather, a man entwined with the history of the country itself.
Sophie learns that the Sepulvedas’ reputation of political and entrepreneurial success has a dark side. The surviving relatives clash viciously amid grief, confusion, and questions about a family curse that the family matriarch refuses to answer. And when a landslide traps them all in the villa, secrets begin to emerge, revealing sins both intimately personal and unthinkably public.