Geologist Cleo Cooper has invested five million borrowed dollars in a natural gas enterprise with her ex-husband Bud off the coast of North Carolina. Pressed into service to advise the wet-behind-the-ears geologist who is assigned to the project, Cleo is brutally assaulted on her first night aboard the Deep Sea Magellan.
Days later, Cleo learns that a man from the ship has washed up on the coast. A clue stuck to his body makes her suspect that Bud may have had something to do with the man's death. Meanwhile, a promising young Russian geologist, Viktor, has been hired as the dead man's replacement. Will he turn out to be friend or foe as Cleo attempts to figure out what happened the night she was attacked?
