Susan Slade's life was about as good as it gets. The only child of middle-aged parents, she grew up secure in their love. A young woman now, she's surrounded by friends and a wonderful man who wants to marry her. Her picture-perfect life begins to unravel with the deaths of her parents just months apart. Her pain deepens as she begins to settle their estate and discovers a bundle of documents--documents that shake Susan's faith in all she thought was real. Thus begins an agonizing search for her true identity that takes Susan to the N.C. coast and into the arms of another man. The suspense is never-ending as she defies forces intent on blocking her search and follows a trail of buried secrets that uncover forbidden liasons and dark, deadly scandals in her ancestry.