This is a story about friendship, jealousy, life in the close confines of a retirement village, and of a disparate group of people brought together by their love of playing mahjong. After one of their playing venues closes down for a couple of weeks, the group finds itself missing a key player.
Alice Logan, realising the closedown is an opportunity for a long-overdue vacation, makes a last minute booking on a cruise. The mahjong players are concerned when she fails to return by the time regular mahjong sessions recommence. A couple of close friends discover no one has heard from Alice since their last games before the closedown, and Alice's little dog, Chester, is now without his adoring mistress for over a month. Convinced Alice's vacation has not gone to plan, and something is amiss, they decide to investigate her apparent disappearance.
Their search soon takes them into unfamiliar territory interstate. It results in a world they only know about through the media becoming all too real. That world comes too close to home for comfort, when a sample of it arrives on their doorstep.