Left virtually alone after the disappearance of her mother and death of her beloved older brother, Emily Parmenter has built a life around the plantation where her remote father and hunter-obsessed brothers raise their legendary hunting spaniels. It is a narrow world, but to Emily it has magic: deep-sea dolphins who play in Sweetwater Creek; her extraordinary bond with the dogs she trains; her almost mystic communion with her own spaniel, Elvis; the quiet of the river and marshes. Then comes Lulu Foxworth, who has run away from her hectic Charleston debutante season to spend a summer in the spell of the low country. Lulu has a powerful enchantment of her own, and this, along with the dark secret she brings with her, will inevitably blow Emily's world apart-at a terrible price.