A coup followed independence. An emergency rule was declared. The junta turned into a family dictatorship. Gringo, aka Roberto Moktar Moncada Villanueva, a swashbuckling, ambitious, and ruthless mestizo of Arab-Malay and Spanish extraction, gunrunner and procurer of mercenaries for the coup, rose to prominence and riches as the dictatorship consolidated. In time he grew even richer; he was also to spread his wing outside backwater Samudera... Anwar, former student leader steeped in democratic ideals now a government functionary, also rose with the coup. Datu Adnan, rewarded him with a high profile post after he had brazenly abandoned Sulayman and his Prime Minister uncle, former friends in the elected government toppled by the coup. But as in reality, as the wily Gringo became even more influential and the dictatorship consolidated, Anwar and the other junior partners in the enterprise soon found themselves sidelined by the regime they had helped bring to power. For a brief interlude after Datu Adnan's death and that of his more ambitious and arbitrary son whom briefly succeeded him, Anwar and his comrades were on the verge of returning to power and influence under the patronage of the new ruler's half-brother, Datu Hazim. Especially after Gringo had moved his headquarters outside of Samudera for greener pastures elsewhere. Driven by lifelong ambition of becoming the next Asian billionaire, Gringo's dream went sour after the death of the American mistress he had beaten and battered for infidelity. Financial problems had impelled him to return to Samudera; it must remain the cash cow for his business now that his empire tottered on the brink of ruin. But his return only inflamed local differences and division; it exacerbated the brother. The sibling conflict came to a head in an insurgency and rebellion that forced Gringo to flee back to Manila where he finally met his tragic fate at the hand of the crazed lover of his dead mistress. The novel is about the inevitable fragility of the friendships and ideals in the face of greed, ambition and the lust for power as typified by Anwar, who does not hesitate to betray lifelong friendships and shared ideals. It is also about man's natural weakness, propensity for folly, fallibility and corruptibility that often makes it inevitable for predators and wild men of greed, ambition and acquisitiveness like the super-villain Gringo to thrive and prosper even where principled men and idealistic leaders ought to hold sway and be in control.