After being away from his home in the Florida Keys for nine months, Jesse McDermitt has returned to find his tiny island compound just north of Big Pine Key in disarray. Being away for so long has taken its toll. Not just on Jesse and his family, but also their island.

The part-time caretaker Jesse hired has disappeared without a trace, and many of the systems that made life easier on the island for Jesse and his family needed attention. After weeks of hard work, things are finally back in order, and Jesse receives a cryptic phone call from an associate in Key West, a yacht broker, asking him to come down island and have a look at something he's discovered.

The part-time caretaker turns up dead in a hotel room in Miami and the body count begins to mount. So Jesse brings in the big guns, both figuratively and literally, as their island is under attack. But what Dean Murphy uncovered was just the tip of the iceberg.

When Jesse and his cohorts become involved, it will take every bit of their accumulated experience, cunning, and warrior attitude to cut off the head of the snake and restore order to the rest of the Florida Keys.