Tully Mars, a 40-something guide at the Lost Boys Fishing Lodge resort, takes trips around the Caribbean and is also put in charge of fixing an old lighthouse.

In this novel Buffett connects stories of science fiction (Captain Kirk), fantasy (The Lost Boys), and drama (Clark Gable) into a single Caribbean-themed epic.

He begins to settle into a life of leisure, fishing and drinking with his Mayan friend Ix-Nay, but his world is soon turned completely upside down when Donna Kay shows up on a pink seaplane and tells him that she will marry Clark Gable, a master horse trainer featured in the previous story.

When the captain, feisty 101-year-old Cleopatra Highbourne, comes ashore, they strike up a friendship immediately and Tully is offered a job as part of the crew.

It is at that point that she takes him to Cayo Loco, the salty piece of land referred to in the book's title, which is a small mythical island that is home to an old-fashioned lighthouse.