Wiki Coffin plays many parts on the U.S. Exploring Expedition—sailor, linguist, navigator.  But then the brig Swallow reaches the coast of Patagonia, an area infamous for its rough gauchos and revolutionary spirit. Wiki is suddenly thrust into his other role as sheriff's deputy when a New England whaler shows up, desperate to find the devious trader who has cheated him of $1,000 and a schooner. Wiki takes up the hunt for missing ship, but the trail leads to something much more sinister:  a body with its skull picked clean by vultures, half-buried in a hill of salt.

The adventure unravels in the impoverished village of El Carmen de Patagones, where the threat of French invasion is imminent, and business is at a standstill under the orders of General de Rosas, the tyrant of Buenos Aires.  Wiki must risk both life and reputation in pursuit of a vicious and determined killer--who has set his sights on another target: the U.S. Exploring Expedition itself.