Johnny Kaimana is a young Honolulu tour guide, enjoying a fun, carefree existence and a no-strings sexual relationship with his roommate, island music man Alex "Aloha” Granger. Just as things turn serious between them Johnny finds himself drawn to Mahini, a mysterious stranger, an imperious tattoo artist from The Forbidden Island of Ni'ihau.
What starts as a hot sexual romp turns almost deadly when Mahini, determined to either keep Johnny for himself or kill him, secretly burdens him with an ancient, evil curse called he malama pu'olo, or a Bundle of Death.
With the aid of the powerful kahuna priest Kimo Wilder (from the book Phantom Lover), Johnny seeks to retrieve the very personal object Mahini has stolen from him. To get it back means making a rare and dangerous trip to Ni'ihau an island forbidden to outsiders.
Can Johnny break the hold of the curse? He must, for his sanity, for his life and also for the life of the man he realizes he truly loves. The man he calls Aloha.
