Peter and Debra meet on a ferry from Seattle to their respective homes on Vincente Island. Debra is a non-practicing lawyer who climbs mountains, runs marathons and raises her two children, mostly by herself, while her pilot husband is away. Peter is a real estate developer who writes an occasional opinion piece for the state-wide newspaper, races cars and has two children of his own. They begin to correspond via email. From their computers, they share their daily lives, learn of each other's risky hobbies, then the riskier secrets. Finally they truly confide, but weave truth and fantasy in made-up worlds where there is only the illusion of safety in the quest to be "known." A romantic battles a cynic over the meaning of love, and rights to "what's real." They discover that honesty and vulnerability are two different things, and self-deception is the most insidious lie of all.