Robin is persuaded by a friend at an English insurance company to investigate a small oil company on the Dutch-owned island of Curaçao, where an unusually high number of newly hired employees have died in accidents. The fraud seems obvious: new employees are required to take out accident insurance policies, with the company paying the initial premiums and becoming the beneficiary for the first six months. Yet there is no way to prove the scheme. Robin travels to Curaçao expecting to make contact with a member of the oil crew planted there by the insurance company. Before he can do so, however, the man is caught and admits that an unidentified investigator will arrive with the next group of employees. Robin thus finds himself without help and marked as the next victim of an accidental death—until he devises a plan not only to save himself but also to force the murderers to provide the proof needed to establish their guilt.