1975, recuperating Vietnam veteran, Theodore “Notch” McCleary, vacations on a rural east coast island where he meets Onis Lanier. What began as an intense relationship between tranquil and fiery personalities, ends two years later, when the volatile Onis leaves without warning. Notch remains behind, unable to forget or move on, often maintaining a vigil beneath the high bluffs of the island’s southwest point. Seven years have passed when Onis and a strangely familiar looking little boy stumble upon Notch and flee at the sight of him.

Fifteen years later, during five oppressively hot days in July, an ensemble of newcomers arrive: Bill Curruthers, a divorced gay man vacationing with his young daughter while living in fear of his ex-wife and her attorneys; island police officer, Martin O. Brumwell, whose obsessive love for Helen, compels him to blemish his otherwise spotless record; Roger Coley, from Bombay, a US corporate lawyer who never thought a promise made to Notch would ever require fulfillment; Ivonne Rodriguez, a young assistant medical examiner with a secret that could end her career; Andrea Jannsen, a frustrated online dominatrix in search of a true love; and Sun Moon Lanier, a confused, failing rock guitarist who believes he is Onis Lanier's adopted son.

Amidst a whirlpool of tragedy, comedy, and eros, the friends, foes, and lovers revolve around the legend of Notch and Onis until it transforms itself into a catalyst for those who search, but in a landscape haunted by spirits of the past, none will find the expected.