Grijpstra and de Gier have retired with their ill-gotten gains; they live idly while maintaining the facade of a detective agency as the source of their income. Now they are being blackmailed to investigate a hijacking by the threat that the tax inspector will be informed if they refuse. The valuable item taken was the entire cargo of oil being transported through the Caribbean in a supertanker. The pirates were armed and dangerous; they killed a sailor. The ex-cops are not eager to take on this case. Their prospective clients, father and son, are greedy former Rotterdam used car dealers - crooks themselves. Nevertheless, when the commissaris is threatened with physical harm, they agree to investigate. The three ex-policemen rendezvous in Key West where they are met almost at once with another murder. The trail leads them to a lap dancing bar called the Perfidious Parrot, then to a clinic run by saintly nuns in Aruba, and on to the formerly glorious Dutch colony of St. Eustatius. Along the way de Gier is suspected of the latest killing and Grijpstra nearly dies of seasickness. But the commissaris not only solves the crime, he manages in so doing to punish his nasty clients in a suitable manner and to restore to his disciples the pleasure of having to do an honest day's work.