Things in the Middle Florida Keys aren’t as idyllic as they seem. If one looks closely, there’s a layer of dirt just below the surface. The butt-ugly kind of dirt that’s hard to get off.

Things move slowly in the Keys—locals call it island time—but there are some for whom it seems that time is at a standstill; whose clocks revolve only around the tides, fish migrations, and the rising and setting of the sun and moon.

Jesse McDermitt remembers the Keys the way he’d first found them as a young man. He’s lived on his little island in the Content Keys for a long time and he’s learned to adapt to some of the change. But not all of it has been positive, and it seems the dirt has a way of finding Jesse, sticking to his feet like Everglades mud.

Is it finally time to go away? To completely disappear? He has the means and there are places in the world where the dirt hasn’t settled. Places he’d like to show his wife and family.

A group of would-be yacht thieves attack the wrong boat, unleashing a series of events that will ensure their downfall. They come when most people are sleeping—under the cover of darkness. But nighttime and Jesse McDermitt are old and dear friends. Against his will, and along with his family and friends, Jesse is thrust back into the struggle between right and wrong one more time. And this time, it gets personal.