It was the eyes. Bloodshot. Manic. Hypnotic. They had been fashioned from pearl shells smeared with red ochre, the irises blackened spirals made from cone shells. They pulled at Archie's soul as powerfully as a vortex. It's 1932, and the Venus Island fetish, a ceremonial mask surrounded by thirty-two human skulls, now resides in the museum in Sydney. But young anthropologist Archie Meek, recently returned from an extended field trip to Venus Island, has noticed something amiss. Has someone tampered with the fetish? Is there a link between the puzzling disappearances of museum curators and the strangely discoloured skulls on the primitive artefact? Could Archie be next?