Cherish Moss is fighting for her life. From the outside, her life looks perfect. She has a great job as an attorney in her parents’ law firm and a wealthy and powerful fiancé, who, most importantly, has her parent’s approval. On the inside, she is barely breathing and no one even notices. Half-way down the aisle the day of her wedding, all the dismissing, disregarding, and mocking she’s endured comes to a breaking point. The path to the alter is a dead end. She runs out of the church, down the street, and toward claiming her life.

A random encounter with a stranger, boatwright Grayson Steele, offers her friendship with a different kind of person. Grayson is laid back, accepting, encouraging. But Grayson is hiding in Dunes Bay. He left his dream job as an investigative reporter for a daily newspaper and fled Chicago after the subjects of one of his exposés on police corruption threatened to kill him. He has vowed not to get involved in a relationship because he won’t put anyone in jeopardy by association. Still, a longing for Cherish grows insistent. For Cherish the timing is all wrong, but she can’t resist Grayson’s selfless promise of true love.

Danger surrounds them when they learn the dirty cops who threatened Grayson have come to town. But also, not only is Cherish’s former fiancé under investigation for witness tampering and blackmailing her for support, she learns her parents are working for the mob. Grayson and Cherish must accept the unwanted fate they helped create or follow their hearts to survive.