Thailand, 26 December 2004 – 9.30 a.m. Anita and Michaël are on their honeymoon when Anita is swept away by the tsunami.
The water washes everything away… except memories.
Refusing to believe she is dead, Michaël never leaves Thailand. He survives through odd jobs, drifts into trafficking, alcohol, prison, the Golden Triangle, a Buddhist marriage, the Chinese Triads, the Russian mafia, and the world of Mister Di—Dimitri Vassili Ushak Kartov—the undisputed king of the sex trade, owner of Russian Tobacco and countless bars across Asia.
Caught in the web of organised crime, Michaël becomes a marked man. Eventually imprisoned in a punitive neuropsychiatric institution deep in Siberia, he endures unimaginable psychological torture, including near-death experiments that propel him through the past and the future.
Everything happens to Michaël. Absolutely everything...
Until one day, lying in his hospital bed, he hears Anita's voice.
