Mystery shrouds the disappearance of an American airliner near Tahiti - and a young survivor must cope with a virtual tsunami of terror, twisted passion and tragedy in the Pacific, but is she really just an innocent victim? Surviving a mid-air disaster, cute and quirky Los Angeles teen, Charlotte O'Donnell and her conservative mother are marooned on an uninhabited island with just one other survivor: Ray Hutchinson, a London drug dealer. Charlotte's mother is badly injured and is forced to relinquish responsibility for her daughter, to the whims of criminal Ray - a man who is discovering the flip side to many a man's favorite fantasy. Meanwhile, New Zealand oceanographer Tom Fitzgerald and his wife - a couple who lost more than most in that disaster - set sail on a quest for answers. But in the U.S., new evidence transforms their innocent journey into a voyage through a political and cultural minefield. How much of this, if any, is the fault of the beautiful but enigmatic Charlotte?