Sam Acquillo can hide in his windswept waterfront cottage all he wants. The demons of his past are going to find him. Worse, they've teamed up with some pretty nasty demons of the present.

Peel back the glamour of the fabled Hamptons and you'll find a beautiful place filled with ugly secrets. This is Sam Acquillo's world. Moving effortlessly across the social divide with wry pal Jackie Swaitkowski and rich guy Burton Lewis, the ex-boxer, ex–corporate infighter seems doomed to straddle the thin red line between envy and love, hate and forgiveness, goodness and greed—and sometimes, life and death.

Part-time carpenter, full-time drinker, and coconspirator with an existential mutt named Eddie Van Halen, Sam tries to lead the simple life. But as always, fate intervenes, this time in the form of Robbie Milhouser, a local builder and blundering bully who shares with Sam an irresistible attraction to the beautiful Amanda. When Robbie is murdered, Sam finds himself in the crosshairs of a very determined chief of police.