Eric Sumners, a rich businessman in the Pacific Northwest, has it all: he is smart, handsome, successful, and happily married to Deborah, a beautiful woman of perfect artistic and social taste. One day, on a whim, he decides to give her a luxurious sailboat. But when someone as rich as Eric decides to do something, the side-effects are almost always unexpected. Suddenly, extravagant opportunity spawns ever-expanding waves of hope, but also conjures up deep currents of jealousy and desire. Suspenseful, romantic and surging with a flood of characters, ambitions and dreams, The Big Tide sweeps away all before it with the pleasures and delusions of unfettered aspiration and passion, and deep truths about the nature of art and love.