A crescent moon carved a scimitar scar across the cobalt midnight sky over the Bahamian islands. Orion’s Belt framed a canvas of diamond stars set in the velvet stillness above the turquoise waters of a calmed sea gently brushing against the white sand beach that had the aspect of newly fallen snow in the darkening penumbra.

Wealthy tourists in the faux Aztec Temple at the center of the 21st-century Hollywood Dream that is the Atlantis resort complex smoked their after-dinner cigars as the...