White West Indian David Wyatt, on loan from the Meteorological Office is working with the US Navy on the Caribbean island of San Fernandez. An expert on hurricanes, Dave almost has a sixth sense about them, and even though it would be atypical, he feels sure that Mabel, approaching fast, will hit the island. The trouble is getting anyone to believe him – to a man, everyone he speaks to tells him that San Fernandez doesn’t get hurricanes, that the last one hit in 1905. Of greater concern in the rumour that exiled, thought dead, rebel leader Favel is coming down from the mountains with an army of locals set to overthrow despotic President Sururier.