Off California's San Miguel Island, a fishing boat struggles in the battering-ram seas and blinding rain of a sudden squall. On the beach near his home, private investigator Wil Hardesty is approached by a Vietnamese fisherman. Vinh Tien is not convinced that the disappearance at sea of his only son was the accident it was ruled. Wil, a Vietnam vet, resisting the ghosts of a past war, decides to help Vinh Tien because Wil, too, lost a son to the ocean. What Wil discovers brings him into a shadowy world of Asian gangs and corruption played out against the exotic background of the Vietnamese culture. Wil must discover the truth within a web of violence and secrecy before a ghost-killer finds him.