The borough of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn --- along with most of her family --- holds travel agent Cyd Redondo responsible for landing her Uncle Ray in a minimum security prison. So when Cyd's ex-husband, Barry Manzoni, announces that his parents have disappeared from an Australian cruise, she rushes Down Under to enlist the help of travel liaison and friend Harriet Archer, who offers a free cabin on the Tasmanian Dream and insider assistance with the search. When Cyd finally makes it to her cabin, she finds Harriet dead, lying in a pool of blood. While Darling Cruises hurries to cover up the "unfortunate event" and sanitize the crime scene, Cyd scrambles to preserve evidence, terrified that the murder is connected to the Manzonis' disappearance.

Days after the pet store owner next door to Redondo Travel is poisoned, travel agent Cyd Redondo wins a free safari. She and her recent fling, Roger Claymore, arrive in Africa --- luggage lost --- to find two of Cyd's elderly clients in a local jail. She manages to barter them out, only to discover smugglers have hidden $500,000 worth of endangered parrots, snakes, frogs and a lone Madagascan chameleon in the clients' outbound luggage. When Roger steals the bags --- is the U.S. Embassy in on the contraband ring? --- Cyd and the chameleon helicopter into the jungle to go after Roger on their own.