Caroline Carlisle loved Simon from the moment she first laid eyes on him when she was nine years old. Unfortunately, he married her older sister, and thus set a southern family on a collision course with its past. As Caroline starts to report on the oil spill threatening the sea turtles on Florida's Panhandle beaches, she begins to uncover the secret of her own mother's past. With Caroline's sharpened reporter skills, she digs until she brings all the secrets to light, including her own.