After a bachelor life which included many of the usual vices, Harry Rose retires to his island paradise on the Pacific coast of Central America. A chance encounter leads him to employ baby Gabriela's young mother, Estefania, as his live-in housekeeper, a temporary arrangement that lasts until Gabriela is six, when her mother leaves her in Harry's care for a couple of nights. Her mother has done this before, Harry is fond of Gabriela, he treats her well and Gabriela loves him.
But this time Estefania does not return.
Days turn to weeks and months until Gabriela is almost eight, when their idyll is shattered by accusations of abuse and of murdering the missing mother.