Zack Chasteen's old friend Mickey Ryser pays a surprise visit to deliver some bad news: doctors tell him he has only a few weeks to live and he plans to spend it on his private-island hideaway in the Bahamas. But Ryser has a favor to ask. He needs Zack to find his estranged daughter, Jen, whom Ryser hasn't seen in more than twenty years. He wants to make amends and spend what little time he has left with her.

When last heard from, Jen had bought a big sailboat and was bound for the Bahamas with some college friends. A private detective hired by Ryser to track her down has gone MIA. One of Jen's friends has jumped ship, under curious conditions. And there's the specter of an international piracy ring, known to hijack and plunder private yachts passing through island waters.

With little to go on, Zack embarks on a mission that will take him from one end of the Bahamas to the other. It's home to all sorts of rogues and rascals, with plenty of places to hide---a wonderment of islands that Zack calls Baja Florida.