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.