Athena Cooper's tragic past drives her to seek solace in a bottle. The addiction threatens her legal career, and she risks spiraling out of control. When her dog engineers a meeting with an all-too-handsome hunk, it's lust at first sight... until she discovers his identity. Businessman Russell Crawford is desperate to find the woman who cheated him out of his inheritance. His shock when she's the gorgeous redhead he'd met briefly is only intensified when she claims his father was a murderer. Athena and Russ declare a truce and join forces to investigate the mystery of her parents' disappearance from an isolated island off the rugged Northwest Coast of British Columbia. Along the way, they uncover long-buried secrets that rock her very foundation. Can she overcome a lifelong distrust and open her heart to love?

Twelve years ago, sixteen-year old Carrie Ann Hetherington, pregnant with the child of a murder suspect, fled the small town of Cooper's Ridge for the anonymity of Seattle. Now, faced with a family dilemma, she must risk her carefully reinvented life and return to her childhood home. Eighteen-year-old Declan McAllister's prom date is found beaten and strangled to death, and he becomes the prime suspect accused of the grisly crime. Now this successful Dallas businessman returns to Cooper's Ridge to find the true murderer and finally lift the cloak of suspicion he's faced all these years. In his quest to prove his innocence, he must join forces with the woman who shattered his heart to find a devious killer who will stop at nothing to protect a shocking truth. Caught up in a menacing web of secrets, deception and danger, Carrie Ann and Declan struggle to overcome past betrayals and present danger. Can they tear down the barriers they've erected around their hearts and rediscover true love?