Honolulu, 1895.Cholera has descended on the city.Lloyd Osbourne is newly-married but his bride has been exiled to Samoa while he assists at Queens hospital treating the victims.Mark Twain is due to arrive to give a series of lectures and history tells us that the plague prevented him from landing. This story upends that myth. He must deal with a scurrilous attack on his reputation and a notorious "Miss X."It is tale, Lloyd tells us at the outset, "of a queen and a princess, as well as intrigue, blackmail and murder." as well as Twain's own efforts to unravel a mystery from his own past.