The last thing adventurer Dart Carpenter expected when he deliberately stranded himself on a Pacific islan was to find a naked "mermaid" washed up on the beach. The woman who called herself "Copper" couldn't recall how she fell overboard, but her dreams were filled with terror. After the two of them returned to civilization, she was confronted by the past. A shocking revelation shatters the idyllic love affair she had shared with Dart in their tropical paradise. When they meet again, the secret that Copper has kept from Dart for two years is in danger of exposure. But a more deadly danger forces her to beg for his help. Can she overcome Dart's angry suspicion and save the child she loves from the violent aftermath of an act so monstrous that her mind refuses to remember it?