Since the breakup of a disappointing love affair, Faith Donovan has poured her heart and soul into making the exquisite artistic jewelry favored by the rich and famous. She needs rubies of the finest quality and to get them, she needs Owen Walker, a man with an intimate knowledge of the ruby trade. The idea of working with Faith makes Owen nervous. He suspects that protecting her and the fabulous wedding necklace commissioned by the Montegeaus, a family descended from smuggles and pirates, will be more dangerous than smuggling rubies out of Afghanistan.

Soon the two are drawn into a terrifying web of greed, corruption, and betrayal, as they discover shameful secrets of generations of Montegeaus-a discovery that has them racing for their lives across the black waters of the salt marshes, pursued by greedy men and a deadly past.