A late-September storm wreaks havoc along the Pacific coast of California. Homer Elias Annapolis, a retired lighthouse keeper who now works as a tour guide at the old lighthouse at Loma Point in San Diego, discovers a scuttled scow washed ashore. To his horror, a dead body lies in the hull. After extricating the corpse and running post mortem tests, San Diego Police Commander Shepherd identifies the body as Juliana A. D. Knecht, a thirty-four-year-old woman who is well into her second trimester of pregnancy. The coroner's report stipulates that Juliana died from a dose of cyanide. An empty vial firmly clutched in her right fist shows residue of the poison. Is it suicide? Perhaps, but a mysterious note found inside a pouch attached to Juliana's waist leads Shepherd to believe otherwise. But who has a motive? Perhaps it is the boyfriend who taught her to sail. Or maybe it is his father, Horatio Alvis III, a known philanderer and ladies' man in the community. Juliana's mother, Arabella Davos Knecht, will not rest until she exacts revenge-even if that means doing so on all known suspects, whether innocent or guilty.