Dan Middleton is forced off a quiet road in Southwest Florida and confronted by a blackmailer wearing a balaclava. Two years earlier, Dan had been charged with his wife's murder in Massachusetts. Even though the charges were dropped, he found himself living under a black cloud of suspicion. Moreover, his in-laws threatened to sue him for wrongful death, compelling him to give them custody of his young daughter.

A former college hockey star who descended into opioid addiction after a painful injury, Dan has taken on the identity of J. R. Kincaid and forged a new life on the Gulf Coast with the beautiful and mysterious Kateryna.

Now he has been found out: the blackmailer demands $25,000 on the threat of revealing his true identity to the police and his girlfriend. He is loath to pony up the money, but how can he risk losing Kateryna - who will surely feel betrayed and doubt his innocence?