The grisly murder of a yachtsman, allegedly by a local Indian, rocks a New England seacoast town and severely tests the loyalties of a white woman and her Native lover. When Miranda Lewis, a workaholic writer of books about American history and her boyfriend, Nate Barnes, a hot-tempered former American Indian Movement activist, visit friends—hers at a maritime museum and his at a nearby Native-owned gambling casino, neither anticipates the storm that breaks when Miranda’s friend’s yachtsman fiancé is murdered and Nate’s casino friend is the chief suspect. Miranda’s quest for the truth not only puts her at odds with Nate but with her own friends. It also leads her deep into the victim’s past—a tangled web of secrets, lies, and betrayals—and ultimately to a life-and-death struggle with a crazed killer that teaches her just how fine the line is between civilized behavior and savagery. Though set in the present-day, the book is laced with historical lore about whaling and the often troubled relations between the Indians and the early settlers.