Chapter V: Hale I’a Da Fish House & Pu‘ukohola Heiau
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
At a casual fish house in Waimea, Hawaii, the Earl of Greshamsbury (Francis) admits he needs yet another infusion of cash—ten to twenty million dollars—to cover the costs of Arabella’s restaged wedding and other bills. Dr. Thomas Tong, his old friend and financial confidant, is shocked. Three months earlier he had arranged a $20 million loan from the reclusive billionaire Rene Tan, and now only the Big House itself remains unencumbered. Francis’s decades of aristocratic overspending and Arabella’s empire-building ambitions have created a mountain of hidden debt. The two friends briefly consider alternative lenders: the billionaires on the guest list, Arabella’s brother Peter, or the Norwegian parents of the groom, Max. They toast to the Norwegians.
Afterward, Thomas’s Uber passes the Pu‘ukohola Heiau, a sacred hilltop temple built by King Kamehameha. He visits the site and reads a warning about the sharks that have frequented the adjacent bay for centuries. Standing before the submerged temple where Kamehameha once observed the sharks, Thomas reflects on the myth that sharks don’t get cancer—and on his own futile efforts to dissuade patients from wasting money on shark cartilage. His thoughts turn to Rene Tan, who has been battling metastatic pancreatic cancer for years. In a last-ditch effort, Thomas secretly flew Rene to MD Anderson in Houston for an experimental trial. Now, with the dying man mercurial and desperate, Thomas refuses to rattle him for another loan, likening the billionaire to a disturbed shark.
Key Events
- Francis takes Thomas to the unassuming Hale I’a Da Fish House, his escape from Arabella’s world.
- Francis requests another $10–20 million loan, revealing that the previous $20 million from Rene Tan is already gone.
- Thomas lays bare the Gresham financial wreckage: ancient trusts depleted, hotels mortgaged, only the family manor left as collateral.
- The two friends discuss—and dismiss or humor—alternatives: guest-list billionaires (Francis too proud), Arabella’s brother (she’d rather self-harm), the Norwegian in-laws (a toast-worthy hope).
- On a whim, Thomas visits the Pu‘ukohola Heiau, a temple built by King Kamehameha, and reads the shark warning.
- Thomas reflects on the cancer–shark myth and his own clinical experience; he remembers that Rene Tan is undergoing an experimental trial in Houston.
- Thomas decides he cannot disturb Rene for another loan, fearing the consequences of pushing a terminally ill and unpredictable man.
Character Development
- Dr. Thomas Tong – This chapter casts Thomas as the secret financial surgeon of the Greshams. His oncology background surfaces powerfully: he debunks the shark-cartilage myth, yet uses the shark analogy to describe Rene. His protective refusal to ask a dying man for money reveals a moral line that even friendship with an earl cannot cross.
- Francis Gresham (Earl of Greshamsbury) – Francis’s cheerful exterior at the fish house masks deep desperation. He is trapped between Arabella’s relentless spending and his own inability to say no, illustrating the impotence of inherited title against modern debt.
- Arabella Gresham (mentioned) – Her invisible hand drives the crisis; her voracious ambition is why a twenty-million-dollar infusion evaporates in months.
- Rene Tan (mentioned) – The titular “shark” of the chapter. A billionaire who once controlled a global construction empire now faces his own mortality, making him lethally volatile.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
- Hidden debt beneath glamour – The fish house’s plastic tarp and rusted poles contrast with the Greshams’ magazine-ready images, exposing a mountain of unpaid bills.
- Sharks as mortality and danger – The bay where sharks have swum for centuries becomes the chapter’s core metaphor. Rene Tan is a disturbed shark whom Thomas refuses to provoke.
- Myth versus scientific truth – Thomas knows sharks do get cancer and that cartilage supplements are useless; the myth stands in for Francis’s magical thinking about money and Arabella’s wedding-as-fantasy.
- Sacred landscape and submerged history – The submerged temple, invisible since the 1950s, parallels the Greshams’ sunken financial heritage and the buried severity of Rene’s illness.
Why This Chapter Matters
Chapter V deepens the novel’s financial stakes from abstract luxury to specific, catastrophic debt. It reveals the Greshams’ last-resort financier, Rene Tan, and introduces his terminal cancer as a ticking clock that will soon explode. The Hawaiian temple visit ties together the themes of hidden danger, myth, and mortality, while foreshadowing the collision between Thomas’s medical ethics and the earl’s impending ruin. The chapter firmly establishes that no amount of beautiful scenery can mask the shark in the water.
Study Questions and Answers
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Why does Thomas refuse to ask Rene Tan for another loan, even though Francis desperately needs the money?
Thomas knows that Rene is dying of metastatic pancreatic cancer and is in the middle of a high-stakes experimental trial in Houston. Thomas views the ailing billionaire as dangerously unpredictable—like the sharks in Pelekane Bay—and believes that disturbing a man staring mortality in the face could have severe consequences. His refusal is both a practical precaution and a moral judgment about exploiting someone who is fighting for his life. -
How does the visit to Pu‘ukohola Heiau and the shark warning amplify the chapter’s central metaphor?
The temple overlooks a bay where sharks have been sighted for centuries, and a sign warns visitors not to enter the water. Thomas parallels this with Rene Tan: just as one shouldn’t disturb the sharks, one shouldn’t rattle a terminally ill and mercurial billionaire. The submerged temple—lost to rising waters—also mirrors the Greshams’ invisible financial wreckage hidden beneath a glossy surface. -
What does Thomas’s reflection on shark cartilage and cancer myths reveal about his character?
As a physician who trained at MD Anderson, Thomas values scientific rigor over comforting falsehoods. He knows that sharks do get cancer and that cartilage supplements waste patients’ money. This pragmatic, truth-first mindset contrasts sharply with Francis’s reliance on wishful thinking about marriage to a Norwegian fortune. Thomas’s honesty extends to his unwillingness to pretend that Rene Tan is a viable lifeline.