Rufus and Zaq travel down the Niger River with fisherman Tamuno and his son Michael, searching for a kidnapped white woman.

Soldiers arrive by speedboat, raid a village, and take the fisherman Karibi away, forcing Rufus and Zaq to flee.

Tamuno leads Rufus and Zaq safely to the village of his brother, Chief Ibiram, where they rest for the night.

Military speedboats intercept the travelers, and Zaq tips the boat while grabbing a rope, sending all their equipment to the river bottom.

A military major pours corrosive petrol over kneeling prisoners, including Tamuno and Michael, while delivering a furious lecture about oil.

Rufus returns to Port Harcourt, writes his article, and is personally praised by the powerful newspaper owner known as the Chairman.

Oil executive James Floode gives Rufus a large sum of money and an envelope to deliver to Zaq on Irikefe Island.

Rufus returns to Irikefe Island and finds Zaq lying under an acacia tree, still ill but recovering at the shrine.

Shrine assistant Naman leads Rufus and Zaq to a freshly dug grave in the forest, claiming Isabel Floode is buried inside.

Rufus and Zaq dig up the supposed grave at night and find only a rock, proving Isabel Floode is not buried there.

A military helicopter gunship bombs Irikefe Island, reducing the village and the sculpture garden of the shrine to rubble and ash.

Militants surround Chief Ibiram's group of fleeing villagers on the water at night and demand they hand over Isabel and Salomon.

The Professor frees Rufus and gives him an envelope containing Isabel's hair to deliver to James Floode as proof of life.

Rufus returns to Irikefe Island and Gloria tells him that Zaq died before the militants brought her back to the island.

Rufus finds his sister Boma among the shrine worshippers on Irikefe and learns she has decided to stay on the island.

The novel opens with journalists Rufus and Zaq navigating the violence-ravaged Niger Delta to find the kidnapped wife of an oil executive. Their journey is immediately disrupted by a military raid on a village and the loss of all their equipment when soldiers intercept their boat, stranding them under the control of a brutal major who uses petrol as a weapon of terror. After a return to Port Harcourt where Rufus is praised for his article and entrusted with money and a message by James Floode, he goes back to find Zaq recovering at an island shrine. A fake grave exposes that Isabel is alive and hidden somewhere in the Delta, but before Rufus can act, the military bombs the island and the militants close in once more. The story ends with Rufus delivering the Professor's ransom demand, learning that Zaq has died, and finding his sister Boma choosing to remain with the shrine worshippers.

The core search for Isabel Floode across the war-torn Niger Delta.

Zaq tells Rufus how oil executive James Floode visited the newspaper with his handler Simon to hire journalists to find his wife.

Chief Ibiram tells Rufus and Zaq how his community was pressured and forced to relocate again and again by the oil companies.

In a flashback, the journalists arrive on an island and discover a burned camp, a rocket-destroyed boat, and dead bodies everywhere.

In a flashback, Tamuno and Michael arrive by wooden boat to pick up the stranded journalists and take them to Irikefe Island.

Rufus visits his sister Boma at home and tells her about the violence; she weeps over the innocent people who were killed.

Rufus interviews James Floode at his Port Harcourt home and notices Floode's unsettling familiarity with his Nigerian maid, Koko.

Rufus learns from editor Beke Johnson how Zaq became famous by writing intimate stories about sex workers he befriended at Bar Beach.

Rufus watches the shrine worshippers walk to the water in white robes at night and meets the nurse Gloria for the first time.

The military camp doctor tells Rufus that Zaq has a hemorrhagic fever destroying his liver and that survival is very unlikely.

In lockup, Rufus meets a calm and commanding militant named Henshaw, who insists the journalists care about the bigger political cause.

Boma arrives at the ruined Irikefe Island looking for Rufus and tells him his editor says he has lost his job.

Rufus convinces a family hiding in a dark building from the military to help him find a boat to escape the island.

Rufus catches up to Chief Ibiram's fleeing group and finally meets Isabel Floode, who begins explaining what really happened to her.

Isabel's driver Salomon tells Rufus the full story of how the fake kidnapping was planned and then spun dangerously out of control.

Rufus visits the grave where Zaq has been buried to say a final goodbye before leaving Irikefe Island for the last time.

This pool traces the supporting layers of the story, beginning with how James Floode originally hired the journalists and how relentless oil company pressure has displaced entire communities like Chief Ibiram's. A flashback to the burned Agbuki Island and Tamuno's first arrival as a guide introduces the physical landscape of ruin that frames the journalists' mission from the start. Back in Port Harcourt, Rufus visits his grieving sister Boma and then interviews the oblivious Floode, noticing how personal exploitation mirrors the broader colonial extraction taking place across the region. On returning to the shrine, Rufus discovers the full arc of Zaq's fallen career through editor Beke Johnson's account and meets Gloria, the nurse who provides a crucial clue about Isabel's condition. The pool ends with Boma's surprise arrival on the ruined island, Rufus's desperate escape by boat, his reunion with Isabel, and finally a last farewell at Zaq's grave, completing the human toll of the Delta's ongoing crisis.

The backstories and secondary players that shape the Delta's tragedy.

Rufus recalls meeting Zaq at a drunken graduation dinner; he helped Zaq walk home for miles and Zaq gave him his journalist card.

Rufus decides to take the dangerous kidnapping assignment only after learning that his hero Zaq has already agreed to go.

The military camp doctor explains how the oil company poisoned his village and then paid him to stay silent about it.

Rufus tells Zaq in the military infirmary how he spent years learning photography before eventually finding his way to journalism school.

Rufus recalls how his father lost his oil company job and the family was forced into poverty in a place called Junction.

In a flashback, armed militants in black masks herd the journalists at gunpoint and steal their boat, stranding them on the island.

James Floode admits to Rufus that his marriage to Isabel was already over and that another woman is carrying his child.

Rufus learns from Beke Johnson that Zaq's career was destroyed when cocaine was found in his luggage and he was imprisoned.

Zaq tells Rufus he plans to start his own newspaper in Lagos and invites Rufus to abandon everything and join him.

Zaq confesses to Rufus that he never made the phone call he promised to help Rufus get his first journalism job.

Gloria tells Rufus that the white woman she recently treated had diarrhea and weakness — symptoms that would not have killed her.

Zaq and Naman devise a plan for Rufus to dive underwater and let the current carry him off the militarily controlled island.

Villagers who rescued Rufus from the water tell him that the missing Isabel Floode and her driver Salomon were sent to Chief Ibiram.

Isabel stands up and reveals herself to the surrounding militants, refusing to let innocent villagers be taken as hostages in her place.

Rufus watches the shrine worshippers perform their purification ritual in the water below and begins walking back down the hill alone.

This pool follows the revelations and choices that shape the novel's emotional core, beginning with Rufus's formative night with Zaq at a graduation dinner and his personal history of poverty rooted in the oil industry's collapse. As the journey deepens, the doctor's enforced complicity, Rufus's own backstory, and a flashback to the militants seizing the journalists' boat reveal how thoroughly oil corrupts every relationship in the Delta. James Floode's private admission about his affair reframes the reader's entire understanding of why Isabel disappeared, while Zaq's confessions about his career and a unkept promise expose the fallibility beneath his heroic reputation. Gloria's medical intelligence confirms Isabel is alive, but it takes Rufus's desperate underwater escape, a rescue by strangers, and Isabel's own act of self-sacrifice to finally bring the truth to the surface. The pool closes with Rufus watching the worshippers perform their purification ritual — a quiet, fragile image of hope amid devastation.