Impoverished Honolulu heiress Merrylei Wentworth has two big problems in her life. First, mysterious prowlers keep vandalizing the ancestral mansion she's determined to renovate as a guesthouse. Second, enigmatic Japanese-American architect Jamison Sumida raises her suspicions when he offers assistance if she'll sell him one of her late mother's paintings. Conscious of his immigrant background, he's not attracted to the feisty, independent Merrylei. She's wary of his motives—why is he interested in an unknown artist? But she's haunted by a compelling and seductive sense of deja vu when they're together. As they are drawn deeper into the mystery of the painting, with its clues to missing jewels of Hawaiian royalty—long-hidden family secrets are revealed. All the while their attraction to each other deepens—until the attack on Pearl Harbor tears their lives apart.