When Arlen Wagner awakens on a train one hot Florida night and sees death's telltale sign in the eyes of his fellow passengers, he tries to warn them. Only 19-year-old Paul Brickhill believes him, and the two abandon the train, hoping to escape certain death. They continue south, but are soon stranded at the Cypress House--an isolated Gulf Coast boarding house run by the beautiful Rebecca Cady--directly in the path of an approaching hurricane. But...

Investigating the murder of a prominent community activist in Florida only to discover that the beautiful socialite who hired him was implicated in the death of her husband years earlier, Harry Brock survives an attempt on his life before learning that his first wife is dying.

A beautiful widow, a flawed election, a practical joke gone wrong and elements in his private life enmesh Harry Brock in the dangerous pursuit of an explosives-carrying killer bent on revenge.