Born to one of Jamaica's oldest and most powerful families, Ceci Baron has been rootless since childhood. Two desertions-first by her father and then by Paul Strangman, the idealistic but ambitious political reformer and the only man she ever loved-have driven Ceci from continent to continent, bed to bed, and to a life of self-protection and controlled intimacy. Against her better judgment, she returns to Jamaica and is drawn into a family crisis involving her dominating half-brother, her dangerously eccentric aunt, and her estranged father. But it is Paul who finally exposes Ceci's vulnerability, passion, and strength of character as she becomes entangled in political and emotional intrigue among the seafront villas and shanties of a Jamaica that tourists never see.