On a sunny July afternoon in the small fishing hamlet of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, the trawler Bountiful Princess quietly leaves its mooring for a night of shrimping in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. In the wee hours of morning, it silently slips back?minus its captain. Meanwhile, some miles away, a birthday celebration is in progress. Dina Sechrist, daughter of the socially prominent Sechrist family, has turned twenty-one. The two episodes, although miles apart, both physically and socially, are strangely connected. Its left up to Mobiles Chief Inspector Harold Anjou to find out what has happened to the missing captain. As he puts the pieces together, the glittering image of the Sechrist family slowly falls away to reveal a hotbed of manipulation and deceit. While he delves through the labyrinth of lies and cleverly told facts, Mrs. Sechrist fights to protect her family from something worsethe truth.