Law student Kristen Sheppard drives her husband Quinn Halloran, who had hoped to start a new life together on the Florida Keys, to despair, stubbornly preparing a divorce. One of the monthly weekends he has with their 4 year-old son Mark, his sail yacht Ocean Dreamer reports losing a mast and is declared lost at sea without much hope of a survivor. Fourteen years later, now an attorney and remarried to Steve Collins, she recognizes on friends’ Caribbean holiday video an allegedly Canadian father John Williams and his son Matthew running a yacht, Phoenix, as Caribbean Dive Adventures for tourists on the island Santa Alicia as Quinn and presumes the bright athletic boy to be their son Mark. Despite flying in without a passport, she is allowed in. The Australian-born hotel owner Patrick is helpful. $400 buys her a dream day at sea with the charming hunk, who even has fond memories of his kind mother but believes she died in a fire when he was three, reason for dad to move with him to a new Caribbean country every few years, while seeing to his schooling, to start up a new business and sell it with a nice profit. However, police officer Bodden tips the popular Willams men about her story, so dad urges Matt to leave permanently for Salt Cay immediately.