Marine biologist and former secret operative Doc Ford is lazily poling his skiff along Southwest Florida's flat copper sea in search of sea anemones, when he runs into the body of the most hated man on Sanibel Island—Marvin Rios.

And when the Island's simplest and sweetest resident is arrested for the murder, Doc heads straight into the heart of the sunshine state's dark side—to save his friend from being framed, and to save Sanibel Island from a rising tide of land-grab schemes, blood money, and violence.