The sentence reads "I turned my head and saw, beyond the shoulder of my beloved, the empty copper sea, hushed and waiting, as if the world had paused between breaths."

A wealthy landowner/investor named Hub Lawless has disappeared off the west coast of Florida, supposedly fallen overboard during a storm and drowned.

The captain of the boat, Van Harder, is blamed, having been found drunk and passed out when the boat returned to shore, but all is not as it appears and the dead man possibly faked his own death and is, instead, living in Mexico with a lover, avoiding the eventual failure of his businesses.

As Travis's fee is half of the value of what he recovers, Harder has placed a value of $20,000 on his "good name" and offers $10,000 to McGee in payments over time to find out the truth of what happened.

McGee and Meyer travel to the Gulf Coast of Florida, undercover as investors, to find out the truth of what happened.