A loner since his wife was murdered, retired NCIS investigator Jack Dawson moves to Portsmouth, New Hampshire to enjoy his retirement. He also hoped he would someday run into Ray Coombs, the man who killed his wife. Identified but never arrested, Coombs was originally from Portsmouth.

When his clients and friends become the target of random vandalism, he is fine leaving it to the police. When vandalism turns to violence and affects the people he cares about, this changes everything.

An 1813 shipwreck and an 1873 double murder, both at the Isles of Shoals, become pivotal as the drama plays out in historic Portsmouth, NH, its harbor, and the nearby Isles of Shoals. Dawson, now a marine mechanic and caretaker for an Island home, becomes personally interested in Portsmouth, NH Police Detective Sheila Michaels as he is drawn into the events.

Having seen her with his business acquaintance Wayne Meher, he keeps his distance, but she does not. Neither of them realizes that Wayne Meher is really Ray Coombs.

Behind the violence is the sociopathic personality of Tony Wagner. Driven by a combination of greed and revenge, he will stop at nothing to get what he believes is rightfully his, and to right a century old family wrong.

From two attacks on Dawson's boat at his marina, to the final confrontation in the cold dark water of the Atlantic Ocean, the reader is transported to a world of beauty, adventure, and suspense.