Craig, tall, homely, recently graduated from Vanderbilt University, goes to Roatan Island, Honduras, to learn the truth about his father's death six years before in a scuba diving 'accident.' He avoids his mother's cousin, Aaron, who runs the Paradise Inn resort where his family had stayed. He accidentally encounters Carol, who is staying at the Paradise with her husband. She mentors Craig, whose uncompromising moral sense interferes with the deviousness his investigation requires. They try to reconstruct events leading up to his father's accident and ultimately uncover a tangled web of lies about the accident, Aaron's role as vice lord of the island, and Craig's family and heritage. Their snooping threatens to reveal too much, and they have to run from Aaron's hired police, who have orders to shoot on sight.