THE STRODE VENTURER, ploughing distant seas, bridges two very different worlds--the island paradise of Addu Atoll and the commercial world of London.Everything is very much business as usual, but at Strode House a coterie of directors plots against the family. Nowhere is disaster closer than in the Maldives, where the Adduans, an isolated seafaring people, have literally bet their future on the company.Peter Strode, wanderer, the odd man out in a family interested only in power and money, makes the cause of the Adduans his own. Volatile, impulsive, full of driving enthusiasm, he sets out to save these people and restore his father's company. Only death can deflect him from his purpose.