Diamond Head

Hawaii, 1959. Widowed pineapple plantation owner Richard Howland, often called King for his stature in upper class Hawaiian society, is contemplating the request to run in the newfound state's first election for the US Senate, he almost guaranteed to win if he does run. That request coincides with his younger sister Sloane Howland's return from the mainland, San Francisco, where she was attending college. King and his sister-in-law Laura Beckett, who stayed on at the plantation after her sister's death, have done everything in the goal to pass the plantation on to Sloane when the time comes, especially as King's only offspring, a son, died in the same accident that killed his wife leaving King and Sloane the last in the line of Howlands. Sloane returns with news that she and her childhood friend, Paul Kahana, who was attending the same college, have decided to get married, their relationship which only recently moved from platonic friend status to lovers. King objects to the marriage, not because of Paul being unambitious which he admits, but purely on racial lines as Paul is native Hawaiian, that objection only strengthened in King's political ambition. When she was a teenager, Sloane was on the cusp of embarking on something romantic with Paul's older biracial half-brother, now Dr. Dean Kanaha, they stopping themselves before anything happened. While Paul and Dean's mother, Kapiolani Kahana, also has the same racial objection, she coming from it first hand in her first husband, Dean's father, being white, she does bless the union. Complicating matters is that King is in a secret relationship with Asian Mai Chen, who he could probably admit to himself that he loves but will never marry or consider "family" because of her race.