Andrew Lake is a young, idealistic architect who, newly married to Lucy, takes up what appears to be a dream job in the Bahamas designing luxury homes. But all is not as it appears to be. His predecessor turns out to have been eaten by a shark, his secretary disappears and he gradually uncovers a property scam funded by drug money and fronted by a United States senator. When he threatens to go public, the Consortium need him dead. Escaping initially on a small sailboat, Andrew continues on a terrifying journey through the Bahama Cays pursued by the Consortium and then by the police on a trumped up rape charge. Stretching his survival skills to the limit, he is determined to get to Washington where he hopes to break the story.