When graduate student Isabel Palmer moves to her mother's native country of Venezuela to finish her Masters degree, her grandmother presents her with a priceless piece of family history-the journal of her ancestor, a sixteenth century Spanish sailor, one of the first Europeans to walk Venezuela's Pearl Coast. Fascinated by the eloquent entries and romantic story within its pages, she begins translating the journal with the help of Archaeologist Manuel Santiago, which leads to a brush with romance and a search for stolen treasure. But the closer she gets to the pearls, the more danger she encounters. Her partners' questionable motives and personal agendas keep her guessing about who she can trust right up until the expedition's climactic ending.